


Believe in me, please

by leechailatten



Category: NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, Smut, Ten is a kitsune/fox, and taeyong is a lone wolf, get ready to yell and cry at equal parts, kinda hybrid AU, they are a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 86,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24494281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leechailatten/pseuds/leechailatten
Summary: Have you ever met a person that makes you feel so wildly attracted to them that you can't even actually tell how insane you are going?Ten had warned Taeyong about what he could do to him, but he didn't see the real meaning of it.To be honest and fair… when he had done it, not even Ten himself knew.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Comments: 40
Kudos: 110





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OhXiuyin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhXiuyin/gifts).



Damp leaves were sticking to the ground forming a slippery coat to step on, and still, there were sticks cracking under his bare feet. But he was ignoring it. He was ignoring everything, even the pain of the brambles of the forest pricking him or the forest's stones rolling when he accidentally stepped over a loose one and he stumbled and tripped. It was fast, and he got up quickly every time to keep up with his pace.

Ten ran across the green and misty forest, leaving the town behind him for the best this time. It was not ideal, he could even sense the irking sound of crows’ wings somewhere upon his head and among the green leaves that still held on the tree’s branches despise the autumn hug, waiting for him to falter on some step and benefit from the aftermath, but he had no time to hesitate or think twice about the good and bad sides of a departure, if he was going to miss the town or not. Maybe he could turn back to it in a couple of days and resume the way he played there, but for that he would have to be breathing by that time, nonetheless. 

He had started feeling his lungs burn with a silent complaint about the crazy and erratic velocity of his race, clearly unhealthy for any living creature’s organism. His heart wasn’t that big to pump blood that fast, it was obvious. 

That wouldn't last too much if he kept forcing himself.

To be quite frank, he would have been rather out of reach for the hunter if they were playing a fair game. His run was swift, his weight was light and his size small. Ten could even slip through the holes on trees, sneak in a den to hide and seep under the bushes, but humans learned how to cheat on nature’s advantages and, with powder, bullets were even faster than Ten. 

The sound of them, hammering into the wet earth of the forest just some centimeters away from his paws made him panic. It was a run or die. Fire powered weapons were disgusting, a devilish invention if you asked him. They were too loud for his ears, smelled strong and rusty, and broke the fresh air into tiny pieces of noise and tension. 

Regretful was nothing of what he felt in that moment of being chased. And is not that Ten hated humans per se, they were fun to watch and mess with. The majority of them were unrestrained of heart and vivid in emotions but some were, as well, really too foolish to spare. Some of them deserved the nuisance he brought to them with a lighthearted smile. And a few deserved a lot worse of what Ten was willing to give them. 

There was a very diffuse line between being the hunter… and becoming a prey.

The roar of the accurate gunshot reverberated in his eardrums and made him feel like the weeds and stems around him bended back with the shock wave. He too, finally fell on the humid soil of the woods, rolling over the dirt and landing facedown with a strange feeling of a thick and warm liquid draining over his stomach. 

Both his tails were still flaring up with will to continue, with pride to keep going, but that was all in his mind, whilst his body was filled by a pulsing strength, intermittent and not vibrant enough to hold him back up anymore. Not even when the hunter boots made his steps steady and rough as he approached him, throwing a cold shadow over his overthrown frame. 

In his head he had his heartbeat pounding loudly and covering the rational thread of his thoughts. The fog of the woods couldn't compare to the fuzzy state of his vision cloaking with the stinging pain until everything became a quiet, calm and empty space of black. 

It was easy to see with just one sight in the peaceful silence left aside a mean chase, that Ten wasn't an usual creature to come across, since there were clear and luminescent particles floating around his figure and arising in the air, as his breath was ragged still, and he had a beautiful appearance to him. 

Haste trips on itself, whatsoever. 

Ten knew, for it was his main playground, that human greed had no end. They never knew when to stop seeking for more, no matter how pernicious it was. But what he was unaware of, is that due to his luck, or to a push of help from the forest, avarice was his loophole and a ruin for the hunter on the day he was so close to catch him. 


	2. Don't step into here.

Ten didn’t like to wake up in someone else’s bed. The feeling he got from something like that was cold, and asked for some familiarity with the owner of the home that his heart didn’t quite surrender to reproduce often, so it was hard to make him stay long enough to open his eyes in the fake comfort of another house’s sheets. 

In any case, if speaking more specifically, that time he wasn’t waking up in a bed either, but a couch was practically the same. Maybe a little bit easier to take. He knew it wasn’t his place because the smell in the air was different to anything he could trace, and it attacked his mind as soon as the blur caused by the bullet’s impact had dissipated enough, making him kick the slumber away in a short moment. It was as if a wave of adrenaline shook his epidermis and his body, quick and stealthy, reacted to the menacing surroundings. Forgetting every kind of possible drowsiness, he stood up, knowing only the language of an urging survivorship and a personal aversion to the hunter. 

What was that place? He listened quietly, alone in the room, so far. It looked like a modest living room and, judging by the quantity of wooden surfaces that composed the view, it could perfectly be called a cabin. 

The ceiling wasn’t too high, and the light was soft and kind of gloomy, as it barely streamed from the old fashioned window behind him and the flames burning in the fireplace, but there wasn’t a single trace of dust or a spiderweb in the nooks and corners. Storage boxes closed, carpet straight under his feet, no pick-and-mix in sight. It was almost too neat, if that could be an issue to anyone, so ordered that it was surprising to feel the cosynes that also played a part of the scenery in between those walls covered with wooden boards. 

Wherever he was, it didn’t resemble an image from the city. 

He approached the window to take a look at the outside view, finding out the reason for the poor illumination. He had to wipe off the condensed droplets that were collecting on the glass surface for the contrast of temperatures between the warm stance and the rainy forest out there, leaving the trace of his handprint behind, but it was clearly the break of dawn. 

A piece of his brain was wondering how much time he had spent in a faint inside that strange and, at the same time familiar, place; but then, his instinct jumped again to the sound- followed by the sight- of someone else approaching and entering that calm space of a living room he had been occupying, clearly looking for him and his new state of wakefulness. 

Ten retreated, crunching down to the floor with a singular flaunt of flexibility not known by many, hiding behind the sofa where he had been laying just some moments before the stranger made his blood freeze in his heart.

A high-pitched howl was sent out as a warning that one step more in his direction wasn't welcome and would be interpreted as an open invitation to take the law into his own hands. Meanwhile, his eyes were searching for the bare minimum clue of a reason to be there and not already hanging from a rope a couple of inches above the ground.

The boy in question, the one person that was standing behind the other end of the sofa, stopped on his tracks, looking at the only visible part of the other, which was a blonde mop of soft hair falling over his dark eyes. 

Taking a paused look at the newcomer, he didn't look all that frightened, but neither did he have the air of a person who is willing to take the risk of stepping closer to Ten if he kept showing him his teeth. 

What surprised him the most, maybe, is that the boy wasn't the one they named Jaehyun, who he had expected to find in this case. After all, Jaehyun was the hunter that had chased after him for several agonising minutes until his muscles ached, all probably without thinking twice about what he was doing. This one man was smaller, and not as broad as the hunter, as he stood there with a certain something to his demeanor that differed quite a lot from him. But that wasn't a sign to let the guards down yet, faces can change and lies can be told even with no words in between. Perhaps they worked together, hunting in pairs. 

He took a slower step forward, and moved careful, placing his feet on the boards of the floor with a delicacy that was almost choreographic. 

Ten grunted again to make sure his point had come across. 

The room then fell in a hush, with the hand of the house’s owner stretching towards Ten, trying to call upon his calm or something similar.

"Hey… you are awake now"

“Don’t come closer, hunter” he tipped off darkly. “Spared my life or not, I don’t like you. I don’t have a clue of what you intend to get from me, but I am not a pet nor a trophy” 

The other boy slowly raised his arms and showed his palms to him with innocence and an undoubted half smile that showed his amusement mixing with something else. 

"I’m not a hunter. At least not one of those you think of”

“Oh, of course. Then what am I doing here? I presuppose that this is your house, and I don’t remember agreeing to pay a visit or knowing you at all. In case it’s not your house… I don’t feel a lot better if you broke in and are happily trespassing. So what is it going to be? Hunter or robber?”

The other boy, still with his hands in the air calmly, proceeded to sit on the far edge of the couch.

“I found you thrown in the middle of the woods. I reckon that the hunter you are looking for didn’t count on me when he moved back to the city to find you a cage. I brought you back, that’s it” 

Ten eyes peeking from behind the armrest changed in a quick shift and became a lot more sharp than wide, as the other had been expecting. It almost made him smile, because, if something, he had guessed Ten right. 

“Just because? Is there someone so selfless in this world nowadays?” he mocked. 

“Well, I chewed over my options for a while” said the owner, shrugging. And then, seeing from the corner of his eye the smirk that had painted Ten’s expression, he shifted on his own seat and added “But letting you there would become a problem in the end. I don’t like crows around here, they are so impolite and bothersome. You would have attracted a bunch of them” 

“Are you by yourself?” asked Ten to make sure. 

“Yep, there's no one else, it's just me" 

Ten raised again, coming out from his refuge and crossing his arms upon the armrest of the gray, mushy sofa, to lean closer to him that time, gaze full of zeal to respond to the attention falling on him. 

The other boy noticed how, awake, he looked different. The tints of his personality flowed through his veins as if someone had activated a mechanism pressing a simple button, and so his face had a sparkle kissing on the profile of the cheekbones that sometimes hid under his locks of long hair, and his lips acquired a different curve. 

"Oh… Are we in the presence of a lone wolf?" The smirk that topped the sentence was more likely of what the house’s owner had been expecting from a fox rather than an elusive individual trying to hide behind his furniture. It was normal, though, he still had red smudges on his face and it must be flowing from an open source somewhere under his clothes. 

"My name is Taeyong" he explained with his best welcome smile. "I live on my own in this cabin, so you could say that yes, I am a loner" 

"Why?" Inquired the blonde one without missing a beat, reclining on the armrest, chin tucked on top of his hand and eyes scanning the boy he had in front of him with no rush at all. For what it seemed, he had time and space to do so without no one saying a word about it "Do you like to be alone? You enjoy loneliness?" 

Taeyong licked his lips and swallowed with the question. He wouldn't say that he enjoyed being alone. In fact, for a while already he had noticed he wasn't so joyful about that aspect of his retired life in the woods, but he couldn't just quit it and give up to whatever that was making the city so crowded. However, he felt like sharing those thoughts with a stranger, let's not say with one that was looking at him like the blonde was doing, wasn't comfortable.

“You know? On these occasions, people tend to say ‘thank you’, or something in that line. Maybe your name" 

“Seeking for an appreciation sentence? So you are not so selfless” he chuckled, curling his pink lips in a lovely smile that, for the way that raised and lit up his eyes, Taeyong guessed was genuine. Although he was more than puzzled about what was bringing him such joyous time. “But I give that to you. So thank you, Taeyong. I should have been a mess back there, uh?” 

He nodded in response. 

Even if it wasn't what he would have chosen willingly, Taeyong wasn't used to talking a lot, mostly because in the latter years, the majority of times he spoke, he did it for himself. It had been longer than what he could count in a quiet bubble, almost all of his memories were attached to the forest where he had been living. 

His life was simple and at the same time ominous and complicated.

Live in the forest and for the forest, he was born for that task, his nature was to guard the precious, truest forms that cohabitated there. 

When he was younger, a cub, people still lived around there, sharing their goods with their neighbors and bonding with the forest in a cordial relationship. When times were like that, Taeyong used to live with his grandmother, and had plenty of friends that usually played around with him among the vast forests with the only rule of not deeping in it too far. Life was simple. He was social, amiable and enjoyed the joy of company really much. 

But as the town received more and more technology developments, the last families that remained in the rural areas and treated the place gently moved to work in fancier jobs, as anyone had done in the previous years. He knew then that the time of community had ended for him.

But that may, as well, have made his job a bit easier. 

A lot of times, he had questioned the advantages of the fast growth down there in the town. As time passed, more people seemed to forget the sympathy with their old home, and betrayed the trust they created in past times, harming the status of their life cycle from time to time with their actions. The outer parts of the woods annex to the town had been palling down slowly, and the vitality of it’s ambience wavering under the quick pace of living down there, the smokes and the noise. 

In that sense… it was good that people had left the forest alone. 

Maybe Taeyong had lost a bit of the ability he had to thread conversations fluently due to this, but in his defense, he could pull out the card of Ten not being just anyone that passed by. 

Nah, that didn't make sense. Ten communicated like any other person in the world, he had the same mechanism, Taeyong was only making up excuses for himself. 

He bit his lip and licked it hesitantly, and his sweaty hands grasped over his lap. 

Ten was looking at him without a word, and one eyebrow was pulled up in question. He was younger than Taeyong had expected, around his age, maybe some years younger. He had that clean look even though he had supposedly rolled on the dirt for obvious reasons, emitted a stylish and mild vibe, except for the tattoo that swirled on his forearm, maybe. He got floppy blonde hair that he tucked behind his ear with a light motion. The sleeves of the tee were short enough to show the muscles of his arms marking slightly under his coppery skin. However, under the material, there were also the white bandages peeking under it, which reminded Taeyong what he was supposed to say instead of that awkward silence that settled over them. 

"Are you in pain?" Ten tilted his head to the side, not tracing the reason of the question too well, and Taeyong pointed to his left arm with a moderate hand. “Does it hurt too bad?” 

“Oh… oh?”

His eyes fell on the obvious injury that he had been ignoring before. Due to the haste and the adrenaline filling him and pushing his actions for the mere act of survival, he had moved like a savage in the moment he had seen the first glimpse of Taeyong, but the truth was that it was pressing issue to have a bullet hole in his arm. 

The older one watched him as his fingertips moved towards his upper arm, pulling up the material. He flinched and withdrew them in a split second. 

“Well, it would be fine if I don’t mess with it. Thank you for bandaging it”

“You should… take a time to let that heal. It went rather deep, your arm must be really sore and damaged” 

“It’s fine, thank you, nothing I can’t get over in a couple of…” as he talked, he had gotten up from the couch and was brushing his garments in place and his hair behind his ears but he stopped talking in the action and started palming over himself as if he had lost something. “I…”

“Are you looking for this?” asked Taeyong, letting a pendant swing from his palm and hang from his fingers with an unexpected softness to the gesture, considering that he was in possession of a valious object that belonged to Ten. 

The light of the fireplace made it throw a glow due to the thin silver chain, holding a perfect drop shaped pearl, vivid with that pearlescent white of its own. Considering that Ten had another two necklaces layering over his open collar, the pendant looked simple, yet his eyes widened a bit and sparkled with worry. 

“Yes, thank you”

“Finders keepers” trailed Taeyong off. 

The blonde stared as if water was pouring from the closed ceiling. The moment he realised what Taeyong meant with that had struck him, and he wasn’t fast enough to hide that surprise of his face before the other could register it. He had misinterpreted his intention holding his pearl and was now at a loss of words. Everything turned a tad slower than it used to be, and he scrunched his nose in discomfort. 

“That is not yours, you don’t have the right to have it”

"You are a fox”

“You can’t hold it”

“Right?”

“That’s not _exactly_ it”

“Uh. I am kind but not dumb, we have just met. People say your kind is tricky, so don't think I would let you run across my house without watching my back" 

"Don't play with that" he said, going to reach the perfectly round pearl that Taeyong was holding. However he moved back and dodged him, which provoked Ten to give him a look that let his blood cool down with a quick chill. 

He stood straight, a couple of meters away from Taeyong. It was only then when the elder one noticed that he was, indeed, rather small and slim, but his posture showed none of that. A part of him felt like Ten would lap over him at any moment, while he was paralyzed by the darkness of his eyes like a child. 

He rushed to hide his arm holding the pendant behind his back, noticing that he had bumped into the right- or wrong- thing to get a hold of and reminding himself that it would be of no use to give it back easily to the other if he really wanted to use it as a bargaining chip. 

"Holds value?" 

Taeyong felt every step that Ten took towards him like a tingle creeping up the back of his neck. He smelled good, intriguing, Taeyong could have a long drag of it when he breathed. It was like if he had bathed on perfume, but the aroma wasn't too strong or invasive on his skin to drown the notes of fresh air lasting on him. 

"Seems like it's just a trinket?" The tallest gave one step back to build again the initial distances with Ten but his butt bumped on a chest of drawers that was resting against the wall. He sounded so stern when he spoke to him again. "Give it back"

He got closer to him, on his way to reach his pendant hidden behind Taeyong’s back, but the latter pressed a hand on his chest and pushed him back, holding him in place and keeping him from totally sticking to his own. 

“Listen, you are injured. You really should take some days to rest. That hunter hit you well, you could have had a lot worse luck if he hadn’t decided he wanted to get you home for more than fur. I’ll return your pendant to you in a couple of days, when you are fine” 

He sighed and made a face that Taeyong understood as indignation. 

“I can take care of myself, I wasn’t born yesterday” he protested. “I am thankful that you helped me, that was nice from you, but that’s it. And by any means you deserve to keep that so give it back to me. Now” 

"Imagine I don’t. Then what?"

There was something in the way he stared at him that felt like a liquid leaking inside his veins and traveling across him. 

“Ah" he chuckled under his breath, and the sound came out soaked in a darkened tone of self-confidence that left Taeyong with little to no choice but to believe what he was hearing, at least in the spot he was standing. "You want to be kind. I could drive you to the line where you stop discerning what is insanity and your lucid thoughts anymore and drain you to the last drop without you even noticing it, because you would be liking it so much you would forget. Geddit?" 

He blinked as a queue to take a second and let his words sink in, which was actually what he should be avoiding. He had to pull himself back to the realm. 

He gave Ten a smile. 

“Don’t take it to heart so much, I said I will return it, and that’s a word. Just let your wound get better before you go so it doesn’t take you to a worse end”. For a moment, the world revolved around the gesture that took Taeyong to wrap the chain around his neck and close the clip of the necklace behind him, deleting every other point of view from the counter of choices. He had the confidence, the calm and importance to flash a beam to Ten and ask him "How does it fit me?" 

Ten bit his tongue bitterly, eyes stopped on the vision of the pearl resting on his chest, nested in the hollow space between Taeyong's collarbones. 

He watched him, boring a hole in his chest in silence. Either he was going to insult him, or lose control and throw a tantrum, it is not like Taeyong could really miss the way his frown was deepening, for sure that his brain was working at an abnormal intensity inside his skull. Ten scrunched his nose again and then teared his eyes from it, muttering something unintelligible for him to go and sit on the couch again, hair spilling over the armrest and sigh leaving his lips with defeat.


	3. Don’t understand me anymore?

Through the following couple of days things didn’t change a lot from what Taeyong had considered an average daily routine in the last years. He woke up early and had a nice breakfast, then he went for a long walk in the forest and took a look around to see that everything was in order, sometimes returning with this or that set of goods; one day it was firewood for the heater, next time a bunch of chives to cook meals. 

Is not like he had taken the fox in because he expected a change in his life. In fact, it was almost the opposite. He didn’t even think about the consequences of helping him, at first. When he had seen that there was a young boy thrown in the middle of the woods and bleeding like a stuck pig, in the closest of senses, he couldn’t just walk past him and leave him to die. And especially not with the specks of glittery light that flit around him as if there were fireflies kissing him in broad daylight.

It was later on that he realized that a singular coincidence like that was both his job and a challenging idea. He might be sylvan, he might be hungry or mad, so he just collected himself and his audacity and grabbed a hostage before he woke up. His pearl necklace. 

They’ll be fine, right?

He quickly found out that Ten wasn’t too picky, he didn’t complain, and he wasn’t noisy. He was, in fact, quiet. He had expected to get a slight headache at the end of days, because the guy had painted the color of dizzying all across his eyes, but then nothing. Just short exchanges of words about trivial things like eating preferences. The younger also happened to stay inside the cabin all the time, limiting to the space of his little nest he had casually created in the living room, while Taeyong paced back and forth in the woods. 

He didn’t really have enough nerve to approach him with questions and surmises, Ten should be just licking his own wounds. He understood that. 

Once or twice, he watched him struggle to finish changing the bandages of his arm in order to prevent an infection, but he had such an air of independence that he kept Taeyong away from approaching him and help him finish it up without a word or gaze. He just ended up there, looking at him from the distance as he tied the compresses holding one edge between his lips, perhaps receiving a lesson about how he could really take care of himself.

He just went with the flow, but at the same time, he couldn’t shake the feeling of how strange it was to have someone else around the house just like that. 

Ten didn't pay him any attention at all. Or that’s what he could extract from their aloof convergence.

Another time, Taeyong came home to find him asleep over the kitchen’s table, sitting on the chair and with his head resting on his palm instead of using the comfortable couch that he had offered him as a place to sleep. He had given him a short look and went to get ready to go to sleep himself, in the stark bedroom placed at the far end of the small cabin. 

The house wasn’t big. It was just a little lodge in the outer parts of the forest, but deep enough to be safe from intruders. 

It was built with the wood that the very same forest had given to his family a lot of years ago, way long before he had born or became the only one left of his kind in there. The walls were a little bit crooked, instead of perfectly lined up, but it was barely visible, only a very expert eye would notice.

In the inside, it was a cosy setting that Taeyong had made all his, and his essence, even without him putting a big attention to this task, had stuck to every stance. There were his things in a conglomerate of paint markers and music tapes, spilling with the confidence of the objects that put a house alive, rather than the furniture. It was the kind of place where someone can sit around without fearing the crunching of the carpet, but it was still tidy and clean. A lot of personality lived together with his taste in order. It was the place where he could look at, stare at the walls, and find a relief within himself. 

The majority of the space was occupied by a small resting area with a couch, a low table, a television and a bunch of shelves that carried books and so on. But there was also a kitchen with a table to eat, a bathroom with too much furniture for its tiny space, and the small room that was Taeyong’s dormitory. 

And in the intimacy of a house that used to be only his for a considerable spawn of time, his mind span a carousel of thoughts of change, still floating around without settling down. 

It was in the third -or maybe it was the fourth- day, when he had the realisation of things shifting a few centimeters from their usual placement, and his mind couldn't stay in that passive state anymore. 

The night had rolled over hours ago, and the blue sky that could be seen from in between the windows that three leaves opened above his head had changed into a blanket of black. The light outside was pale due to the full moon letting a soft shower of light fall on the vegetation, together with the little stars in a jet black sky. The air was still thicker than usual, full of humidity due to the rains of the season, cooling the gentle blow of the wind that, anyways, could not enter the cabin. 

Taeyong’s sleep was interrupted by his dry throat, but it was nothing that couldn’t be helped refilling the glass of his night table in the kitchen. However, he stepped outside of his room and into the living room, having the surprise of the light of the TV illuminating the room. 

Ten was spilled on the sofa, watching the images change on the screen with an uninteresting program about some sort of spelling contest. 

And he clicked. 

From under the threshold, concealed in the darkness of the night time, he watched him almost engulfed by shadows in the poor illumination of the fire of the stove dying, with the advantage of his discreet presence allowing him to take his veneer in a bit more slowly. He saw how his chest raised and fell in a constant, lulling rhythm. Maybe it was only in Taeyong's eyes, but he looked heavy-hearted. At least he did in the fleeting instant of trance before Ten’s acute hearing caught something out of the usual in the unmoving air of the night and turned at him.

"It's two in the morning" he blurted out under the weight of his gaze. . 

For the kind of expression that he got back, blank and rather unapologetic, he supposed that the remark sounded average for Ten and nothing really seemed to be out of place for him. 

"Am I being noisy? I am sorry, I will-" 

"No… no" said Taeyong waving his hand. He looked at him, with his knees bent over the couch and tucked under his arms, his hair tied on a small pigtail and his hands hiding on his sleeves. It was really late, he was tired and sleepy, but he couldn't help but to be concerned. Curiosity was starting to bubble inside him with such urging gravity that he sat down on the couch with him, taking a look at the blonde and ignoring the yawn that his body was using as warning. "Ten, why are you still awake?" 

“I’m a nocturnal creature”

Taeyong pursed his lips, unsatisfied with the answer. Ten sounded, not only tired, but almost extenuated, dragging his words at the end of phrases with the weight of fatigue. He managed to make his voice relaxed nonetheless, as if anything was going with him although he was wounded and his bandages had red patches soaking through. He looked much more lowkey than he had been in the morning, and Taeyong questioned in a second how someone could be so hard headed. 

Now, Taeyong wasn't anything close to a busybody. He liked to mind his own business and do his thing diligently without pricking others too much, but in front of the living proof of distension, he felt something that didn't let him go to bed, roll over and doze off again. Knowing that this whole person was at his living room letting minutes pass by in total absence of rest had him like a butterfly batting its wing on a cage, unsettled. 

It just comes off easy to anyone with a heart. That's what he thought, that he couldn't just turn a blind eye and pretend he didn't see anything. It was the common thing for someone with the minimum amount of compassion to feel. 

He took air and, before he could stop all the impulses that he had been having for the past week, he was already talking and surprising himself. 

"Look, I know we don't know each other too much yet, but I'm still worried about you" 

Ten switched off the TV, since he wasn't paying attention anyway, and turned his whole body on the seat, legs crossed over the sofa, facing the older one. Out of every single expectation that Taeyong had right there and then, he saw his pink lips curl with a smirk that narrowed his eyes in the slightest. 

It moved something inside him as if he had swept it. He was so foreing to the fox that was sitting with him on the couch that he wished he knew him better. He wanted to know if he could trust him or if he should better hate him. He wanted to be sure. 

"What are you?" Whispered Ten almost for himself and as if he had been reading the thoughts in his mind stumbling clumsily around the mysteries of his new guest.

"I'm just, as you said… a lone wolf" answered Taeyong, sinking in the slow paced calm of his aura and his breath. 

The younger’s eyes slid down agonizingly slowly from his face to Taeyong's knotty hands playing distracted with the pearl that had been hanging from his neck from the past hours just due to his mistrust. He was twirling the chain and lacing it around his long fingers without a fixed pattern. 

Ten sighed. He was about sure that Taeyong had grabbed the first thing he had on sight to play the blackmail role with him, ignoring completely that he had been accurate. He suspected he wasn't even aware of the importance of it. And in spite of that, he hadn’t ripped it off from his neck while he was sleeping. Funny. 

"My name is Ten" he retorted, finally, keeping the smile. "I think you should now in sight that i've spent a significant ammount of days under your roof"

"Ten" he smiled. "Okay, _Ten_ " 

"That's right. Don't wear it out too much, I appreciate it" he joked, then paused, head tilted with the free locks of hair brushing on his face. A snicker streamed from his throat. "Now you… you come and go all the time from here to there, do you not have a pack behind you, for real? No one? No one that lets you lean on their shoulder?"

"Everyone that I used to know went down to live in the city a decade ago"

"But you didn't" 

Taeyong looked away for a second to respond to that without Ten seeing his eyebrows knitting. Little he knew that he didn't need to see it to be aware of it.

"No, I didn't. Ever since I was born I have been in this cabin, in this forest. And I guess I’ll go in here" 

"You are the watchdog of this woodlands" he said. The sharpness took Taeyong with his guard a little low, especially because he was half asleep yet. When he returned to look at him again, Ten was playing with his own lips, tapping them with his fingers. But still, behind them, he could yet see the playful smile. There was that static again, his tension around him for the newness of his presence and the strange of his demeanor. "A fox and a dog sitting on a couch at night, what an odd pair"

"I am not a dog" corrected Taeyong with a tint of offense in his tone. 

"So I'm right, you are the guardian" said Ten, ignoring his words. Maybe he deserved that for the way he had been referring to him as a fox when he knew that Ten wasn't that. Exactly, as he himself had said. 

He only had the ability to shape into one. 

From ancient times, the name that most commonly had been given to those creatures was "kitsune" or "kumiho", like they called them in the nearest town. Witty creatures with a strong essence that made them able to change their shape as they pleased between a fox and a human. It had been centuries and their origins were uncertain, since they weren't easy to find, especially in the latest times. In addition, people had stopped believing in those tale-like things. But there were plenty of theories about them and their skills inserted in their culture, such as labeling them as witches or demons. The most popular parts were that they could play with the naive, fool the peevish and charm the unfaithful to unmask them in front of their partners. 

Tricky, mischievous and malicious fell on the pack of traits too, for their previously mentioned taste for diversion wasn't very welcome among humans. 

Well, they had it coming. 

"Yeah"

“That makes sense now”

“What does?” 

“Why you’re not living in the city like everyone else. I was wondering why someone like you, precisely, decided to stay here. It sounded like a bit of a waste" 

“How is that now? What do you mean someone like me, anyways?”

“You are ridiculously handsome” he said simply. It was so blatant that it almost offended him, but he was too surprised for that. “The kind of handsome that people like to see and that has open doors for granted in this economy, you know? It's unfair if you think about it, but pretty people get their way around things easier. But now I have to suppose that you don’t take pains in the same things they do, like a paid job, vacations in Bali, or something”

“Do you?” he asked by instinct, following the conversation. Ten chuckled amused. He noticed how it was probably the stupidest question he had formulated to him so far, and felt embarrassed about it. Nonetheless, Ten didn't stop to judge him or make him feel like he should regret it. 

“Look at me” he said with a feisty tone. 

Taeyong moved in his own seat. He knew he didn’t mean it literally, but he did take it like it, staring at him profusely. 

Actually, it was all that Ten had to say, the sentence had nothing more to it. His only explanation was summarized in telling Taeyong to pay a little bit of attention to him. 

Honestly? It irritated him a little. He had done nothing but to turn his eyes upon him. 

“I meant that you belong in the forest, so why are you in the city?” 

“You think so?” he giggled and then sarcastically added “Is that why you have that pearl hanging from your neck?” 

“You are still annoyed about that?” said Taeyong, almost not believing it. Is not like he had stolen an organ from him and was threatening to toss it in the lit fireplace if Ten didn’t dance as he clapped out the rhythm. It was nothing but a security for him if he turned out to be as vicious as some people said. Is not like Taeyong could have known, head never met someone like Ten before. “What was that… I dunno how you called it, histeria? that you were going to lead me to because of this? Or were you lying, fox?” 

He said it with a finger flick on the pearl to highlight his point.

Well, Taeyong could prove instantly that curiosity was pushing him to run too fast suddenly and that he had completely blundered with the latest of his big-mouthed sentences. 

The blonde looked at him in the eye, with something more than unknown for the wolf pooling on them. The depth of his orbs crossed him, like the shadow of a ghost going through his body and provoking an inexplicable feel that warmed up his face and gave him goosebumps. He was suddenly wrapped up in the reflection of his pupils, his head tilting to the side at the same pace and angle that Ten had been tilting his with a dim smile that spelled roguery by itself. From a rational point of view, what he was feeling made no sense, like a fire spreading on his chest and lips, but did he even flinch? He couldn’t fight his way out of it, he couldn’t discern where the voice of his mind was, and only the mute wet sound of Ten’s lips, like covered in red sateen, parting, captivated his attention and dried his throat with a sudden impulse of getting closer. 

Then the younger one broke the eye contact, and what spilled from his lips was only a giggle, cooling off Taeyong’s blood as he landed back on the living room . 

“Don’t call me fox, do me the favor” 

Taeyong opened his mouth to talk, but he was stupefied and it was taking him some work to get there. Out of his conscience, his hand went to nervously fidget with the pearl again, finding this time that the little tear shaped stone was hot. 

Calm at times but still a handful. That was what he had stumbled upon, a time bomb. 

"That felt strange"

"Of course it felt strange. Is not meant for you but for humans. They really don't do a lot to fight it back when they are already determined to do a stupid thing" 

"Don't do it again" 

"Don't ask me to" he shrugged. 

Taeyong pressed his lips together and nodded, knowing that he had a point with that because it was him, only him, who had gone to poke and provoke him with his question, had stolen his pearl and had challenged him to show him a thread that he had put down already. 

He had earned it. 

He stood up from the couch, wrapping himself in his gray fuzzy night robe with white starts to conserve his body’s heat, almost crunching inside it. It was funny, but he had lost the feel of heavy somnolence he had before, and he had also forgotten that once in that night he had stepped out of bed to drink water. 

Anyways, he rubbed his eye and started to take the leave to his bedroom again.

“I am sorry, I admit that. Now I am going to bed, it's almost 3am as it is, and I'm wrecked. You should sleep too, tho. Even if you are nocturnal or whatever, you are injured and I am sure a good sleep would help you healing faster” 

Ten huffed, but a certain air in it was covered in divertment. Taeyong heard him hover in the darkness of the living room, and he guessed he was pulling the blanket over him and carefully propping himself on the couch while minding his wounded arm to not smash it against the cushions and make it open again to bleed. With a stroke of luck and against all odds, the fox would listen to his advice. 

“Good. But one more thing” he cooed with Taeyong already in his room and closing his door. He stopped for a second to give the fox a space of time to wrap up the sentence. “I went easy on you this time, it was just a sneak peak, so I hope you were really thinking to return what is mine when you grabbed it. I don’t wanna throw you from the roof, I am being sincere with you now” 

Deep in his gut, something flipped over at the thought of what he had gone through being just a tiny show of what he was capable of. Yet, Taeyong rolled his eyes. He had definitely hit a nerve killing his pride of maintaining that shiny pendant on his chest.

“Good night, Ten”

Then a pause, the small crack of the fire in the stove breaking wood down and a inhale. 

“Good night” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this tomorrow, but because WayV's MV has been delayed I am posting today instead in order to not interfere!


	4. Don’t  switch the lights on.

The morning that followed his personal discovery of Ten’s particular potentials, he got another shock from him, but it was lighter that time. Without stopping being pleasant. 

Taeyong marched out of his room early morning once more, like every day, already dressed in his light colored ripped jeans and his cozy baby blue hoodie, ready for the cold outdoors. He really was layering several coats of clothes to prevent the chilly autumn breeze sunk to his bones with the cold. 

Most of the time Taeyong looked friendly and only changed that when there was a special necessity of his temper. He had a boyish style, fresh and curious with a mismatch of colors and patterns all across him. It was his taste, he liked to feel a happy freedom through his style too, in which he sometimes cut the garments to make them fun or painted over them with sloppy drawings that made his mood go up. With not many people around to express his feelings to, he had ended up flashing it to the outside world through his clothing and style, and it had worked. 

Modern times came for everyone, not only the urbanites down the hill. He wasn't totally isolated from the world, of course, knowing a bit from every place was a trait from wise men. 

His haircut contributed to the mild image, as it was a bit long, falling over his forehead and covering his eyebrows. Straight and soft strands of hair framed his face with a clean aspect, especially because their gray color helped with his pure vision. It was a touch of magic in his overall portrait, bringing back memories of his bloodline, because it wasn’t typical to see someone with such a pale tone of hair in the nearby towns. 

Surprisingly, when he left his room ready for breakfast, he found that the living room was empty and, on the couch, there was a blanket perfectly folded and a bunch of cushions puffy and ordered. 

On the coffee table of the kitchen, by the other hand, there was the blonde, having a bowl of what seemed to be rice with red beans and a few cubes of tofu. Taeyong was on the surprised side seeing him eat something so… light, but he didn’t take a lot of time to remember that human bodies would be craving a wide range of things depending on the subject. 

Ten turned, rather smiling at the eldest as a good morning greeting, he guessed, and he couldn't help but smile back and slide into the other chair of the table. He didn’t have people over the breakfast table with him very often, after all. Let’s not say, having a warm plate of food for him that wasn’t cooked by himself. 

“What we eating?”

“Marinated tofu with rice, and a vegetable omelet. Sorry for like, storming in your kitchen, but I was hungry, so I made food. I thought the least I could do was cooking for you too, since you… well, you helped me”

“Thank you” he said, having a spoonful of rice and omelet without further hesitation about his cooking skills or his recipe choices. Which weren’t too bad, actually, he seemed to have his ways as a chef.

It wasn’t the most fancy nor rich dish he had seen, but it smelled like a handmade meal, and that was warming enough for the cold of leaving the blankets of his bed. Then Taeyong mixed the cubes of tofu and the shiny brownish sauce with the rice, dumping the whole content of the smaller bowl into the other one, almost making the food spill from the borders of the plate as it was too much to hold. He licked his fleshy lips and continued eating in silence alongside the blonde. The tofu was smooth, but, nonetheless, the marinate was savory and tasted lovely. 

“This is good”

Ten gave a shrug. 

“It could be better but you don’t have coffee” 

“No, I don’t. I dislike the bitter flavour” Ten chuckled with that particular slick pitch of his. 

“For some reason I am not surprised” 

“Don’t try to make me feel like a child” declared Taeyong with an easygoing smile as he kept eating, rather unbothered but still dragged to kick his playful teases down. They made him feel a little bit vulnerable although he didn’t know the reason. “It’s more surprising that you do like coffee and still make this breakfast. Is it out of a healthy habits book?”

Ten scoffed. He looked comfortable, though. 

“Is not for diet or anything, I just like to eat veggies” 

“Ah, I see. Then it’s that the nocturnal creature needs caffeine to hold himself together when it’s earlier than 1pm” 

“Well, yeah, excuse me for having sense” 

“So you are awake for any particular reason?” Taeyong asked, quite interested. He really hoped that the breakfast display wasn’t a result of a sleepless night to contradict him just because, but so far, Ten didn’t seem as snappy as he wanted to believe from a fox at first. “It’s a new one”

He shrugged once more. 

“If you are going to go out I will like to tag along” 

"Yeah?"

"Yep. I am bored here and you always go outside, every day. What is that you do, anyways?" 

"I just go for walks because I enjoy them. I collect food, wood and water, and check that everythings is good, as well. But it's always rather calm, for years it's been mostly the same chill woodland"

"So what's in today's shopping list?" said Ten with a mocking tilt in his voice, making Taeyong giggle. 

He could comprehend that the blonde wasn't that used to go outside to collect his ingredients, the way he looked said it all. 

Only by staring at him one could make up an elaborated story behind his character, especially if there was also a certain background of knowledge, as Taeyong thought he had. Is not like he had stopped to double check the details of said supposed frame of reference, either way. 

Ten appeared to be the type to enjoy takeout or restaurant food a lot. Not for his appearance in itself, the one all subtle and unruffled spread all over his thick flannel shirt with beige plaid, but for his eyes. Taeyong had seen that they were full of dynamism when he had looked at him. He seemed prying and zesty enough to be out there and all around the place trying everything out. It would explain why he lived in the city even if he naturally belonged somewhere else, after all. 

His focus would wander secretly to the places when he heard a new noise in the cabin to track the source, and whenever the older was busy doing his chores, he observed what was the pattern of his body language. 

And he was still considering that the fox could be sylvan, how funny. 

"Nothing settled yet" 

The response that he gave him was nothing that persuaded Ten to stay home, whatsoever. When Taeyong was full of the improvised breakfast they had headed outside, walking towards the inner part of the forest. 

The younger one wasn’t used to meandering around the woodland in his human form, but he didn’t consider changing it, since his favorite shape was clear for him. The view was different from that angle, but the frame of mind never changed inside him. He was always on the loose, unconfined, as he thought it was fair for anybody. Is just that some people were insistent to an extent when they fancied something they couldn’t understand. It was way easier to give an entertainingly dire strait to the ones that have asked for it. 

No pain other for those who had it coming, that was it. 

They walked in a tranquil silence among the sound of their footsteps and the incessant sounds that a forest behold, which are many. That place was alive by itself. There was a pulse coming out from the creatures running around somewhere far and hidden behind the yellow, green and brown leaves catching on the breeze. 

He walked, walked and kept walking, control of time fading from his mind to just breath the fresh air and lose himself to the open surroundings merging into his body.  It was as if there was something inside Ten that the trees and creepers could sense, and they leaned to him in silence. 

There wasn’t a path to follow, but Taeyong seemed to be clear and know all the possible ways around those infinite bushes that looked about the same every time in his eyes. As a long while passed in his absent mind, he noticed there was a colder sense in the air, which reason clearly came to be obvious when Taeyong turned a couple of corners more, the invisible path became wider between the threes, and the soil softer, letting an opening that let him see a big pond appearing ahead of them. It was a sudden change, and the vegetation tilted towards the edges, soothing in the way it was both natural and unusual. 

The expression on Ten’s face looked close to intrigued, as the water laid there effortlessly in a picturesque view out of nowhere. 

“Is there a pond in the middle of this forest?”

“Ah? Yeah” answered Taeyong distractedly. It was too normal for him to go to that perfect secret corner, that he may have forgotten that not many people were aware of its existence in such a recondite place of the abandoned and deep forest. “I usually come here to collect water in the dry season”

“It’s really unique, I bet that people from the city will carry on with their lives without even taking notice that this is here, just a few kilometers away” he chuckled and then noticed how he couldn’t barely give credit to the fact that he had said those words. “It’s a pity”

“That’s what I say, but you know? Maybe it’s for the best”

“You tell me” he said with a surly drop in his pitch before going back to faintly pick on Taeyong with his playful smile. “But anyways, if you come here in the dry season, isn’t this a bit off now?”

“I just like this place” he said, not shy about it.  He had approached to him with his baby blue sleeves rolled up and gave him a short knife. Its look was a little rough, as if it was a family object that had passed to him, but the blade was sharp. "Cut the mushrooms that are growing right there, at the foot of that pine"

“Were you carrying that with you all the time? Gosh, I am lucky that you seem kind enough to not skin me. Or are you?”

“Shut up” said Taeyong shoving Ten towards the spot he had pointed at him without missing to hint a smile “I’m just going to cook them for lunch”

"Okay, okay" The blonde took the tool, chest jumping with his jitters and voice pitching up. 

"Do you like kimbap?"

"Yes. And the spiciest the better"

"You like spicy?" 

"Aha"

“Okay, I’ll dump a good spoonful of gochujang inside your plate”

“Aw, thank you”

He went to the task the elder had commended him with steady steps and a cautious attitude, crunching toward the soil but trying not to get all dirty in just one go. It was a funny view to see, because it was almost out of place that he was so plush. 

But what could Taeyong do but find it amusing? He was a smug fox. 

Despiste his reticence in the first instance, his butt soon flopped on the ground forgetting about stains, as if he had never tried to avoid them. Rather than maintaining his neat look, in the forest he was more likely to be comfortable. After all, it wasn't like he would be trying to reap worship from anyone in that place, the ones that inhabited the woods were at the same level than him. 

"Are you done?" Asked Taeyong from the spot he occupied collecting his very own set of goods when some minutes had passed, getting a frustrated groan from the fox in response. "The sky is really cloudy, it's going to pour at any moment" 

"I'm getting there, don't rush" 

Taeyong approached the pine where Ten was sitting among all the fallen needles without trying to pressure him more. As soon as he saw him working from a closer spot, he understood his struggle, as his left arm was a bit heavier when he moved. Because he had a big wound under his shoulder he surely wasn't able to make the same strength with it than with his right arm, and that was slowing him down and probably causing him pain.

The back of his hand gently tapped Ten’s cheek once, calling for his attention as the boy kept cutting the mushrooms of the ground and cleaning the dust a little. 

"Hey, are you hurting?" 

"No, it’s not that serious" answered Ten, brushing the topic away and standing up with the collected mushrooms to messily dump them in the basket that Taeyong was carrying. It seemed like he had been picking up other herbs, probably medicinal ones, judging by their aspect. Ten didn’t know a lot about forest’s plants, the truth is that his kind wasn’t so based in those places anymore. They weren’t many, but the young ones got bored without the playful relief of humans and had been searching for their own place at the big cores of the population. 

Nonetheless, the elder one was visibly unconvinced by the answer, catching his healthy arm by the wrist to stop him. Ten looked at him with almost a frown, tight hand around him like a shackle.

Taeyong gestured to his other arm with his head. 

"Let me see" 

"For real?"

“For real”

“I told you I’m fine”

"Just one moment so I can check if you are healing well"

The blonde looked sort of annoyed as his lips pressed together, but with all, he popped a couple of buttons open on his warm flannel shirt. He did it one by one, with his thumb and index finger only, all skillfully, and tugged the collar to the side, letting his left shoulder and upper arm uncovered. 

Taeyong couldn’t avoid locking his eyes in the profound dip of his collarbone for a moment, fingers lingering over the shape with an automatic caress that dragged Ten’s smirky eyes to him, and then, on the black lines spilling on his chest that belonged to another tattoo. He couldn’t quite register the artwork before his very own senses pushed him forward.

Taeyong's cold hand seemed to be meticulously following his planning, gripping the material around the plump of his bicep and tearing the sticky bands off, carefully, to open the wrap. He heard how the youngest hissed out loud as he took the bandage off, pulling it from the places where it had been sticking due to the wetness. His nuance was pensive, looking at the wound with a bit of concern. It was better than the first time he had seen it, but still not easy to look at, dark red and actually deep.

"It’s still bleeding" he said, and then he looked at Ten’s face again. He was also staring at his wound, bottom lip caught on a bite for the throb of pain and breath kind of hitched. Taeyong had right there and then an explosion of blooming compassion on his chest. There was something about being face to face with Ten’s fear, true to himself, that made his heart uncommonly tight. 

He exhaled, as Ten seeked for an answer in his face and watched his eyes get big and sparkly, with a sad tone to them. He was bound to the ground and motionless. 

“You look like a doctor that wants to give me bad news. Is it too bad?” 

Taeyong shook his head a little, and smiled at him. It was reassuring although his eyes hadn’t changed. 

Ten was used to the endemic taste for selflessness that humans pulled out with him, he wasn’t quite used to seeing a person touch him so delicately. He let Taeyong drag his poor body to the edge of a pond, with such airly will to help he just wanted to see how being helped for once was.

He complained slightly, for Taeyong pulled from his wrist making his arm burn in its swollen state.

“You must have been having trouble cleaning this correctly by yourself because of the pain. It’s hard to do it alone when you have to push through that and keep the task as if nothing happened, you should have told me to help” he said, as he kneeled on the shore, making the other follow in a perplexed quietness. “But this is your lucky day, fox. This pond is great for this cases, because the water, this deep in the forest, is specially clean and pure and helps living creatures cicatrize”

He was barely done with his explanation when he poured a handful of water that he had cupped in his palm over his arm, sending Ten directly into a loud screech. 

“Give me a reason to believe that!”

“Sorry, too abrupt?”

“Don’t act all innocent in front of me, you know it’s freezing cold!” 

Taeyong finally lost the gloomy sparkles of his eyes and started laughing so out loud that Ten noticed the sound of it was fun and wheezy. He didn’t stop to consider the complaint and splashed more water, mindfully washing away the dry blood and cleaning swollen parts to ease the sting. 

“It’s better this way. Cold is a natural vasoconstrictive, your blood will flow a little bit slower and you won’t bleed more than necessary. I promise you it’s worth it, settle down” 

His chest sunk slowly as he let the air go, gentle breath of sweet scent fanning on Taeyong's face as he clasped his hand on Ten's hip to immobilize his body, putting more water on the wound, both being more collected with the act this time as the older examined if something was out of place. Maybe he missed a metal splinter of some kind the first time. 

"That better be true, it feels like fucking ice"

"You are tense, relax. Don't make me pin you down"

"Of course, and we don't want that, right?" He chuckled, clearly joking, but it was really light, as Taeyong held him like someone who is used to holding another person like that, to avoid their spilling on the ground as they dismayed like damsels in distress. “Okay, let me… do it” he said in a low tone, waving out of his embrace to move to the edge of the water and sit with his legs crossed, proceeding to clean the injured spot of his arms with more rigor than he had apparently done it before. 

Taeyong was satisfied with that, with his self-reliance. Might it be for the job he was taught since little or for his personality, he took satisfaction in the health and plumping vibrancy of his surroundings and by that moment he had noticed already that Ten liked to do things by himself. 

It was fine, everyone was different in their own way. Taeyong was a close-contact lover but he wasn't going to obligate anyone to be the same. 

With a smile painted on his face and a loop of his wrist turning the pearl pendant in his hand, he allowed himself to stare at him for a brief second longer, again as before. While the blonde shook his shoulder to get his shirt looser and move the fabric aside, exposing his smooth glowy skin, Taeyong considered that maybe the years he had been saying goodbye to the community in his environment were a waste, that he liked the idea of having a friend, someone around.

Meeting a new person was a thrill, he had forgotten, but he was glad he came to remind him. Because friendship, he thought, was like the rest of things that sprouted in that forest, it couldn’t be forced to happen just because he had fancied it. But now... Ten had visited by a turn of inevitability and there was something different in the way he felt with himself, a genuine warmth, a softness of spirit that he couldn’t help but enjoy. 

He remembered that he wasn’t made to be so lonely. 

If we nitpick, though, he hadn't been alone exactly. He had a lot of things to take care of, as for example the buzz of the forest that interrupted his thoughts suddenly, being caught on his ears loudly. Ten had heard it too, nose pointing upwards as he tried to see where it came from. 

On the other hand, the older one knew that hum. 

Squirrels were unsettled and running into the deeper zones of the woods, even a few of thems ran around his toes. They were wagging their tails rapidly and climbing the trees with haste. 

"Gonna round after them, pup?" sang Ten finishing the wrapping of his arm. "Kinda small for you to eat, I think I like the bibimbap idea more"

Taeyong chuckled. 

They were scared, but it wasn't none of them that was causing that, they were running from the outside inwards. They might be sensing stormy weather, but it was rather unusual to see that behaviour in animals once the rainy season had already started, it was too rowdy for the middle of autumn. 

He would better keep an eye open on their way back home. 

Besides that, the rest of the evening followed as it usually was. At least for the forest part. Ten was following his steps back to the cabin as some drops of rain finally started plunging like he had warned, scattered and predicting a harder rain that would come later. 

The fox wasn’t so quiet once that he started flowing and breathing the fresh air, and he kept asking Taeyong about this plant or that song he had started humming unconsciously in a moment of distraction. He also spoke, unrestrained and happily about his interest, wondering about the things the wolf thought were interesting. The latter, of course, answered all giddy to have someone kind to converse with. Squirrels, rabbits and dragonflies weren't too responsive to his language. 

It was like that that Ten discovered that Taeyong had a particular interest in composing music and writing lyrics.

"I guess it's my coping method" explained the one with gray hair. "To pour my thoughts out, since I had too many and sometimes it's bothering to not give them way out. They start conglomerating and forming stones that weigh me down" 

He tried recalling the last time he had told that to someone. He found none, Ten was his first. 

"You are the type to overthink, aren't you?" Mumbled Ten as they crossed the last few meters of clearing that separated them from the cabin, stepping carefully on the soul to not put their entire feet in a puddle. 

"Way too often" 

"I know that sucks and I would like to tell you something inspiring to help you getting rid of it, but I'm afraid that I'm not much better at that field, baby" 

Taeyong looked at him with a pink shadow on his face. He didn't know that he had blushed, and for sure that he didn't comprehend why he was so speechless suddenly, but he appeared younger and it made Ten chuckle under his breath. 

"Sorry. You are so shy… it's unexpected from someone that looks like you, I guess, so I keep forgetting. I call everyone I like baby, don't get pressured" 

"Why?" He said, mindlessly, sucking air practically as a defense that time, minding the fact that he was pushing down an impulse to let a nervous laugh out. He didn't want to look more and more childish in front of someone who was supposed to be younger than him, according to what he had said. 

"Who knows? I have that habit. Does it give you a hard time?" He said with a smug grin out of a sudden. 

"No, not at all"

"Of course. You are a lone wolf"

"No. Yes. I mean, I’m not that much of a loner but I don’t mind you call me that" 

He tried to sound convincing and unbothered but Ten kept with his amused expression as he pushed the door and crossed the threshold with his heart skipping a beat. Maybe he had been assigned with the most sly friend of the forest's related creatures. 

He was a fox after all.

But what did it mean to be a fox like Ten? Taeyong was still in doubt, he knew he didn't possess all the wisdom in the world. However, he had an idea to try and solve his questions.

When after lunch Ten had excused himself to go for a well deserved shower after the hiking season across the wilds, according to his words, Taeyong rushed to execute the plan and hoarded his entire bookcase. 

Embracing at least seven books to carry them at the same time, he went to close himself in his room. He didn't want him to see how he tried to dig in his own hesitation, maybe because it was easier in his mind to find things out by himself instead of collapsing when he ran head-on against them. 

Just like the rest of the house, those volumes had been there since he had memories of the world, and his grandmother used to read them to him while he was growing to make him acknowledge a lot of things of their special ecosystem, but he had left them aside for a while and forgotten a lot of their content. 

He examined the labels written on the spines and picked up the one that seemed like would shine a better light over his curiosity. In the first page he found an index, fingers caressing the list as he tried to find the name of kitsune in the contents to then fli p those half creased pages kept under the dusty red cover until he got to the right number. 

In the page there was a full illustration painted with bright colors and an exquisite, smooth technique of colorful inks. The scene showed a beautiful woman with light colored hair wearing a rich gown full of luxury and drenched in stones as it flowed towards the ground. She was sitting on a rock, enveloped by a mantle of leaves and plants, as if in the depths of a dream-like forest. However, the focus of the entire thing was the beauty of her face, so smooth and shiny that she looked like a sculpture. On her flawless countenance there where red marks decorated her eyelids giving her a divine look. 

With the vision of her bearing, the similarities between her and Ten jumped out a lot, hand elevated lightly in the air, holding a bright flower close to her luscious lips that curled up with an enchanting and enamoring sneer. Nothing close to wicked but just a playful and appealing grimace in front of a big circular white moon surrounded by two herons. 

In the next page, there was a text, which title stated to be about the kitsune, shape-shifting spirits of the sacred forests known as kumiho in the Korean Peninsula. 

He started reading, let’s say, with a vehement curiosity about the lecture. He could do nothing but to admit to himself that Ten was taking something out of his chest and splattering it all over the place as if it was a toy for kids. Something that made his stomach feel a bit tingly with nerves when he was near… but that was what someone is supposed to feel when he’s thrilled for a new friend, right? 

The book was clearly old, the paper was so fragile and stiff, and the words old-fashioned as they told a poor description about the kitsune, very smart spiritual entities with magic properties. Charming by nature was another point that made Taeyong have the cold sweats for a second.

It said that these creatures were sometimes tricksters, mischievous or malevolent beings and that some legends tell that naughty kitsunes once attacked some overly proud magistrate or possessed the body of a pretentious woman. Still, the words were ambiguous, as they also stated they were beautiful creatures and had a white color to their fur because they were a good omen to ward off evil and serve as protective companions. 

Taeyong was already confused in the first pages. Some of the tales that were summarised as examples were a literal grudge against them and called them things that reached the most sympathetic name in the word “enchantress”, but others deceipted them as incredibly nice and reliable guardians. 

He flipped the pages, growing frustrated as they kept giving him dead ends and uncertain stories clearly written by humans. He needed something more dependable than that. 

The light outside seemed to become more orange, and he was almost at the end of the section about kitsunes in his book. 

For better or worse, the last page contained something that made his heart freeze inside his ribcage for an instant, reading down the words that were written on the old yellow paper of the book. 

He read it twice to make himself sure, but it wasn’t possible to just play it dumb and pretend he didn’t understand. The book clearly narrated the existence of some jewels or pearls in relation with kitsunes, which were believed to be used as storage for a part of their vitality when they turned human and, if being taken away from them for too long, it may cause them harm or even drag them to a tragic state of fatigue. 

Even worse, the existence of such pearls had become something known by humans and some stole the pearls on purpose when they had the chance to use them as blackmail to force them to do them favors. 

Taeyong felt his heart become a deep void. Oh, he felt so guilty. He knew he hadn't pick it up for a despicable reason but it felt way too out of place and hurtful, it should be a stinging sensation to see someone else flaunting it with all the confidence and not a pinch of remorse. 

His hand, hesitantly, raised to hold the pearl that was resting on his chest, hanging from the thin silver chain. He breathed out, proving that it was still there and well, barely daring to hold it up between two fingers and lower his head to stare at it as it appeared to pulse slightly with a faint blaze. 


	5. Don't trip off the hill

That night Taeyong dreamed with him. 

They were sitting on a vast, flat rock near the water. Ten was tucking his hair behind his ear playfully, like he used to do, and leaning close to him with that glanze of burning ruin that made everything look more than sweet around him. 

The clue of reality was so vague under his magic, he felt like floating again, same as the last and only time he had looked at him with that art of his invading his entire brain like a fog. All that he could see was purple lights and the imperious madness streaming from the blonde, who possessed… who was, actually… gorgeous. 

Having a face like that had something insulting to it. For more than he was the one that called Taeyong handsome, the latter was sure in his belief that every feature of Ten was made in cold blood for solely one purpose.

The green of the forest has become a diffuse mass of green, like an old masterpiece with thick strokes of oil painting that turned fresh leaves into a colorful bunch of shades. 

As his eyelids dropped a little to award him with an enticing view of desire, Taeyong watched the red paint drawing lines from the corner of his eye growing closer to his temple, and from the inner corner to the crease, with small dots under the lower lashline, all peaking up gloriously from under the golden threads of his hair. 

He was mouthing something that Taeyong was only half attentive to, almost more focused on the movement of his lips than the words they articulated. 

“I am sure you will understand when I explain why I am so upset. We can do anything you want, we can protect this forest together from now on, but only if you see sense…” 

“Anything?” trailed off the older one quite out of his reasoning, but Ten was already aware of what the outcome would be and he cackled very hushed. He didn’t need more volume to make himself heard, considering that his hand had been resting on Taeyong’s thigh and his face was inching closer to him. 

He felt drowsy with a flip of his stomach. 

“Ah… what an alley cat, is that what you seek?” Ten moved in so close that he could swear he felt the bat of his lashes tickling his cheek and his breath fall on his lips, parting way too easily. 

He noted how the air escaped his very own mouth, daintily, with a breathy, weightless and entranced word. 

_Ten._

He woke up with a gasp in the middle of the night, a certain flush in his cheeks and a thin layer of sweat covering his skin. He swallowed saliva, trying to find the place where his heart was supposed to be with his palm to collect his heartbeat, but it was impossible given the loud thuds of it. 

He shouldn’t have gone to bed after his reading season, that was for sure. 

His fingers bumped with the pearl on the necklace, cold against his skin that had caught on a furious swelter. Maybe he deserved that sabotage of his very own mind against his decision of abducting something so precious without trembling for a moment. 

Ignorance was not an excuse. 

He looked sideways at the digital clock on his night table. It was almost four in the morning, and yet he couldn’t keep himself motionless any longer after that deviation of his mind. The time ticked and he rolled over for several times, giving up at last, as he sat on the bed ready to step out of it and run to the couch to relieve that runaway train of thoughts, but the door of his room opened just before he could set a foot outside the duvet. 

It took him a little bit of effort to not yell in surprise, heart leaping as Ten arrived unnoticed to his very own bedroom. In his mind, he said every prayer he knew for a word of his oniric conversation to not have slipped out of his mouth out loud and for the fox to not have heard it in any case, because that would be the most embarrassing moment of his entire life. 

What if his proximity was causing him to see things? Maybe he had come to him with his magic in the middle of the night to make him see things and return the pear like he had said he would. Were kumihos really able to do that without eye contact too? The books didn't clear his doubt a lot so it was possible that his uneasy heart rate was provoked by the enthralling magic he possessed. 

He was glad that it was dark enough in his room to be just a shadow at the back for Ten. He was too sleepy to even consider that, by nature, he probably had good vision in the dark.

The latter had also stopped at the door with his feline eyes on him, shining shyly with the reflection of the moonlight. 

Taeyong’s room wasn’t a lot different from the rest of the cabin, but it was surely the most Taeyong place of the house, as if the furniture and ambience was his own heart-beat at rest. There were half burnt aromatic candles on a messy desk that was the only part of the stance that wasn’t tidy. He had a bunch of notebooks and books splattered there unconsciously, with the company of some other volumes piling up. 

Walls were covered with wooden boards, as the rest of the house, but one of them was white, made of gypsum and covered with messy hand painted drawings of funny characters, flowers and other colorful motifs.

The bed was pulled to the side, set into one of the walls and under a window that covered the dim light of the moon outside with curtains. It looked quite cozy, rustic, with the blankets ruffling around Taeyong, puffy and yellowish white. He looked like a cherry in a bunch of whipped cream. 

After his rough awakening and the shock of crushing against his stare, Taeyong’s eyelids weren’t that heavy with slumber anymore, being almost quick to observe that the expression on the blonde’s face was somehow different. 

There was something weaker shining through the mask of his always sharp senses. 

“Ten?”

Before there was an answer, a sound made the air rumble as if a firecracker had gone off, making the fox shriek and recoil under the threshold. The brief flare of light that illuminated the room let Taeyong connect the dots. 

Outside, it was thunderstorming, and he was aware of how loud and unrestrained the thunder sounded in the wild forest without anything to muffle it down, especially for those with a sharp sense of hearing.

Forgetting all the going-ons about magic that he stored in his head, he glared at Ten for a second before his face broke on a tender smile that he was probably unable to see due to the dark they were plunged in. 

"You don't like storms" he said, out loud but more to himself. He was understanding. 

Ten stood motionless for a moment and then gave in and gave up, shaking his head slightly. 

Wordless, he watched the eldest one moving to the side of the bed, getting closer to the wall of the window, where the rain was leaving its masterpiece of running drops, to then pat the empty spot by his side, gently. 

That was so unusual for him, but the apprehension and cold sent him across the room, tiptoeing fast over the wooden panels until he rolled into the bed, cheek pressed to the soft cotton pillows that still had Taeyong’s warmth all over them. The comforter was thick and irresistibly smooth, just like it looked at first sight.

He stopped on the spot, breathing out to let himself rest just that bit.

Insomnia was usually on his side when the night came, that was a trait that Ten had grabbed randomly when he was born and stuck with him ever since, so it was hard for him not to feel sleepless. Especially in certain circumstances that triggered his animal alert. But, to say the least, his mind became dull and heavy once the calm of the wolf's little dormitory filtered into his guts, wrapped in that cloud of gentle covers lulling him to fall asleep. 

"Are you cold?" said the elder one, pulling up that puffy duvet to protect both Ten and himself inside it, carefully, ignoring the big eyes that stared at him in return with a tint of incomprehension. "You seem like a warm weather creature"

The mock in his voice, mimicking his excuses given the night before, helped break the tension he had built up when he felt his light touch. 

"I'll survive" said Ten trying to excuse himself and let Taeyong roll to lay on his back again, both in the bed side to side with only a few inches of distance separating them from touching, perhaps to fool the fox into thinking it wasn’t happening, pretending that everything was fine and not moving from the original position of their colliding lives.

The blonde’s voice sounded too syrupy to be in his usual playful lane. His way with words had dropped under the heavy weight of his sleepiness, eyes closed and lips parting while his long hair spilled on the pillow. 

There was again his smell like a cloud, taking over Taeyong’s own scent collected over the years inside his bedroom. He breathed it in and noticed it wasn’t something he could avoid, as it filled him with the subdued stickiness of it, just like it’s owner, no matter the way his cheek was snuggled up in the less intimidating of manners. 

He closed his eyes too, and the thoughts flooded him, first slowly and then all at once. 

He knew, he  _ thought _ , all of those ideas crossing his mind were nonsense, only fuelled by the newness of the situation and his excited heart rate after letting himself dream with fantasious things. It was too late and deep in the night to even consider it, he tried ti mantain afloat the reminisce of how he wouldn’t clear anything up while he was so close to drifting off and so confused. 

He was a target for susceptibility.

"I'll leave, Taeyong" he heard Ten saying out of a sudden. The truth is that he not only surprised the wolf, who had opened his eyes again and looked at him in line with him on the pillow, but he was also visibly confused with his impulse of stating that out loud. "When my arm heals I will go back down to the city" 

"Of course. You should have a home to return to" he reasoned, not really knowing how sad he sounded. 

"Yeah. Yeah, I do"

“You surely pay rent or something and have… your life”

“Sure” 

It was strange. 

Ten hadn’t had the kind of experience of being in a bed with someone else without his shield, his air of animal magnetism, in a long time. Laying on that mattress while the thunders cracked in the background, being absolutely vulnerable with his innermost feelings shining on the surface of his skin, was something he avoided in front of people more than anything. 

His inner self wasn't as brave as he wanted it to be, and sometimes it was deceiving, telling him he wasn’t good enough at one field to even try it and mess up big time. 

And yet, in his mind there wasn't an intention of flipping the situation around.

It was Taeyong the one who was there, and it's not as if he didn't want to do it with him… damn, he was all stunning… But he behaved differently than others, and Ten knew for sure that he would have needed another type of treatment. He would have deserved it. Moreover, Ten's walls were already built too high, it was difficult to step out and welcome in someone with all the benefits. 

Taeyong was endlessly nurturing, pretty… but if the fox feared something, it was to have to admit that he wasn’t as he really tried to show and needed someone.

“And you? You never go to the city?"

"Only the necessary… mostly when I have to buy things I can't produce by myself, I go to the closest food market. But we all have our faults. Mine are brand clothes"

"You paint over them tho"

"Still"

Ten pursed his lips, his mind flickering back and forth between shutting up and finding something that didn’t make the time seem like it was slowing down. 

"You are like a freesoul. Why do you guard the forest?” he asked after a long pause submerged in silence. 

Taeyong could have already been asleep again but he opened his eyes once more and stared at Ten in the short moment of brightness given by another solitary lightning, head tilting upward to his face, forcing drowsiness to shape into focus, seeing his eyes just before his with an absent tone of gloom. 

“I was born for this, it’s my obligation. But there’s something more to it, you know? I like calm, and I believe this world needs to keep everything that contributes to that peaceful cohabitation among us. It's more and more threatened as days go by and people forget how to be kind with each other and the planet, it saddens me to see people spreading those dark intentions and harming everything that makes us. This rainforest is one of those few places that still survives in perfect harmony"

The irony of his thoughts made Ten chuckle quietly, relaying in the way Taeyong was curling a lock of his hair around his finger, almost with a scientific curiosity. He was absolutely adorable, but it wasn’t a trait born in his visuals. 

“You like calm. And you came across me. What a retaliation of fate”

"Why do you say that? You are actually calm and respectful" 

"Depends on who you ask" 

“Do I need someone else’s opinion to validate mine?” blurted out Taeyong half asleep. Ten’s brain, however, was wide awake. The secure words of the eldest felt like medical needles pitching his flesh and shaking him up, dragging him to be all hopped up. “More often than not I try to go with my own feelings instead of letting others decide for me”

Maybe it wasn’t that bad of an idea to move towards his side of the board, slide the hand he had on Taeyong's hip under his shirt, tilt the situation to his comfort zone. It may act as a way out of his staggered lapse, so anxious and fearful. 

He should have been glad that Taeyong’s body went limp, diving into a calm sleep, before his impulses pushed him to a mindless attempt to make Taeyong like all the others. 

He breathed out, still not comprehending that being afraid of heights didn’t mean he was safe from free falling. 

The next morning he woke up way too disoriented to remember his previous night’s vacillations. 

It had taken him a while to grow used to waking up watching the wooden ceiling of Taeyong's living room, and perhaps he had made his little advances in the last dates, but when he was finally finding it gentler, he changed ir for being taken away from morpheus' arms by the stroke of sun filtering between the curtains and falling on his eyes. 

He grunted, rolling over to the side and then grunted more for putting pressure onto his injured arm. He rubbed his eyes, almost moody due to the first minutes of his morning being an annoying light and a stingy wave spreading on his arm. 

The bed had cooled down in the absence of its owner that had apparently left him all by himself, thrown in the middle of the bed, invading all the space with his sprawled body. Still, he struggled to go out of the sheets where he had been so comfortable and warm, resting the best that he had done in months. Something in Taeyong made him feel safe and knocked his preoccupations down fast to fall asleep deeply. 

He shuffled towards the desk in order to pick something to pull over his short black tee before he froze in the chilly weather of early morning. 

That t-shirt was the only clothing item he had there, together with the black sweatpants that he had worn the day he arrived and was using as pajamas at that point. Other than that, he had been making it through the week with a couple of Taeyong’s shirts and some random jeans. He needed something new, just because of plain respect for hygiene. And maybe some latent necessity of keeping up his charms. 

For a moment, he held the baby blue hoodie that Taeyong had been wearing the day before when they went to the pond in his hands but a tiny voice in his head told him to leave it hanging on the chair again. It felt too… awkward, like a morning-after exclusive thing that was definitely not what he was going for. 

He opened what looked like the closet taking a quick look at the items inside. Folded in one of the upper shelves there still were a couple of wool cardigans that looked like they had belonged to someone else that wasn't Taeyong. He picked up an earthy red one that looked oversized on him, threw it over his shoulders and left the room to start his morning. 

As he stepped out he thought that the big hoodie would have made a fun outfit without the pants, regardless. Taeyong was too shy and nervous, he would have been sent to one of those nervous laughs attacks that sounded squeaky within one second. 

Talking about him, the gentle gray shock of hair that represented the lone wolf was nowhere to be seen among the house’s stances but the smell of breakfast was floating around the place, belonging to what seemed to be fried mackerel and egg rolls resting upon the kitchen counter, probably ready for him in a silent accord of sharing. 

It wouldn’t be the first time he had breakfast on his own, that was a rock fact in Taeyong’s home or in any place of Korea, and so he was about to do it when he stopped a little to see the wide puddle that was forming in the front door as water slipped from under the door.

Ten didn’t know too well what he was supposed to do, but if listening to logic, everyone would just try to prevent the house from getting messy, so he forgot about the meal and went to the door, opening it to see what was the prospect out there. 

It was wreaking havoc.

There was Taeyong under the spray of rain that had started subsiding but was still making his hair and the shoulders of his denim jacket damp, trying to dig a pit surrounding the cabin to prevent the very obvious flood to reach it. The water was running between the trees with a forceful energy as it went downhill carrying mud and fallen branches. 

He looked back to the sound of the door and greeted Ten with a busy gesture of his head. 

“Oh shit, what’s going on?” 

Taeyong rammed the shovel in the wet soil, resting his tired arms over it and looking at the younger with more attention that time. His breath was a bit laboured, and he was probably sweating under his clothes despite the cold weather. 

Whenever he started working like that, all focused and sure of his goal he stopped looking like the fluffball that obligingly welcomes a stranger in his home for the sake of harmony. 

“What if I tell you I don’t know?” he answered, grimacing with a certain level of bummer taking over his voice. 

“It’ll surprise me but I know you are no oracle, baby, I don’t expect you to have all the forest answers” he said with his optimistic relief, grabbing a hoe that was resting against the wall and joining Taeyong with his intent of protecting the cabin. “Let me guess where that small pout comes from. Discouraged?”

“A little” confessed the eldest, resuming the work. “Something is off if the forest is like this. The storm wasn’t so severe to flood it just because”

“It’s not your fault tho” 

“I know, but understand me. I am concerned and that also makes me upset” 

“Well… we can try and check what’s wrong. Maybe there's an easy solution, after all” 

There was something in Taeyong’s spirit that danced when his eyes met Ten, something warm that heated the last drops of rain crushing on his cheeks. 

“You wanna come?” 

“Since I’m already here it doesn’t cost me anything, baby, I’m not a heartless creature” 

“I know” he said, nodding. “I know you are not, it’s just that I’m not used to having help… or company”

“A lone wolf in all his glory, I know” scoffed Ten for the tenuous addition of the other to the phrase. 

“Yeah… But if you really want to come with me anyways, I suspect the problem is coming from the outer zone of the forest, I need to go there and check if everything is cool. But we can’t go today, the rain is just easing up now and it’s a bit dangerous to go hiking like that, we could be dragged by the stream, or slip and get caught onto something… get injured… not fun stuff, if you ask me.”

“Oh, yeah, I get it. I have a bullet hole on my arm so I’m not taking submissions for more of that angry human bullshit” 

“Your arm, how is it today?”

“I told you it’s fine”

“Let me check?” 

“Again? Taeyong, there are plenty of other ways to ask me to take my clothes off, probably more effective than this one” he said with a smirk, yet stepping closer to the older as he pulled the cardigan aside a little. 

Taeyong held on the edge of the woolen garment, because first things first, he was serious about giving him a helping hand. But for sure that the way he looked at him and sneered when he got close, set his nerves at ease. 

He still didn’t fully understand why or how the fox was enveloped in such a strong aura, making him go hazy even thought he had clearly asked him not to use that ability with him. 

And what staggered him the most was the fact that he himself didn’t complain about his petition being dismissed. Because he wanted to be around him despite it, to connect with him a little bit more like he had done back then with his other friends. He just didn't know how. 

Not being a coward, thought, that he knew. He grabbed a little bit more of his inner determination. 

“I'm trying to help. Judging by your capacity to be an idiot, without untying the bandages, we know that at least you are not dying” 

He laughed, so Taeyong called it a day and ignored his insides charging with electricity as Ten rested a hand on the small of his back. 

Luck was also working on his side that day, because when he was done unwrapping Ten's upper arm he smiled victoriously and, pulling up gently from his elbow, Taeyong showed Ten the cut on his arm, still open, red and a bit tumid, but definitely better looking than before. 

The wonderful advance of his recovery definitely stole the attention of the blonde that seemed surprised that Taeyong’s method had worked out. 

"I guess I'm not losing an arm today"

“I told you, I said the water of the spring was awesome. So, no, you are not losing your arm today and probably not anytime soon" 

“Too bad for you then, baby, I have an excuse to keep being an idiot” 


	6. Don’t go easy on me

Later in the afternoon of that weird rainy day, the youngest of the odd pair had been sitting at the kitchen table, distracted with some arts and crafts video playing on his almost dead phone.

For the way that Taeyong was hearing the girl talk about supplies, he guessed it was something related to filling sketching pages with ink washes. It wasn’t too clear for him, because the screen of the device had cracked with a long break in the middle of it when Ten was taken down by a certain hunter, which made it hard to understand the content even as he approached from behind his back. 

Not that he was attentive, anyways, he was more focused on how his own moves were a bit too shaky, soft panic clinging on his chest. 

He had been racking his brain figuring out what could be a simple and adequate approach to something like that but nothing came out clear. 

If it weren't for them holding the thin silver chain of the necklace, he wouldn’t have known what to do with his hands. They were obviously betraying him with an unsettled tremble, but he was already too close to chicken out and pretend nothing happened.

Either way, Taeyong didn’t like to be pushed by the flow like a fallen leaf or something, he was more proud of himself when he acted with bravery even if he had to step a little bit over his comfort zone. Well, that’s the way you expand said zone, right?

Trying to be steady, he passed the chain over Ten’s blonde head and placed the pearl on his chest, trying to clip the small brooch behind him with firm hands and letting it join the set of layered accessories that rested on the open space of the white shirt's collar. 

He could almost feel the heat radiating from the skin exposed on his neckline, climbing on the chain and to his own fingertips like a wave. 

"So now you are giving it back?" said Ten with a subtle tone of amusement and without moving an inch from his seat. He only paused the video, put his phone aside on the table and looked up to the other, whose breath had been swallowed while his mind fired him with a bunch of unhelpful thoughts floating among his dream, the view and his heart.

"Yeah"

"You were adamant about keeping it for a while, may I know what changed?"

The time that he was needing for gathering the courage to look back at him and try to see why he sounded way more funny than mad, was accompanied by the soundtrack of loud thumping of his heart on his eardrums.

"I don't know… I feel like making it like this it’s the only fair way"

When he finally turned, Ten was leaning on his hand, elbow sunk on the table. The pearl really suited him better that he could see it on himself when looking at the mirror. It was as if the jewel was made specially to complete his interesting look, accentuated by the sudden shines of his chains over his white and red outfit and framing his face where he had several ear studs shining with a chromed silver glow. 

He was the most attractive boy he had ever laid eyes on, and Taeyong, not being blind, had known that from the moment he saw him scrutinizing the pattern of his movements from behind the armrest of the living room’s couch. It should have been dying down with time but the impression only grew stronger as he looked at him more.

"I'm happy to hear that" 

“I think you must be attached to it so…”

“A bit, yes” chuckled Ten.

"If it's so important for you there must be a sound reason, and I don't think I have the right to snatch it away from you. I'm not like that, so I re-evaluated my choices"

Until that moment Taeyong had always defended that beauty was in the eye of the viewer, especially with the place he lived in and the things he could see everyday, still ignored by many, but the fox was probably universal. 

His eyes had a curve that always soaked in his own emotions, so easily that the corners sharpened with an appealing line when allure painted them with an irresistible stroke. The honeyed color of his skin glistened confidently on its own, smooth over the light muscles of his forearm, uncovered due to the roll of the cardigan’s sleeves . 

In return of Taeyong's gesture, his heady smile was so wide that he could see his white teeth shining under his pink velvety lips, making his words trip and roll from his lips driven by pure curiosity. 

“You have sharp fangs in your human form too” he pointed out. 

“Very observant”

It was less than a moment when he noticed he had closed the gap that separated them with a short stride and leaned in closer to check that his out loud thought was alright, holding his face up to his. 

He wasn't pushing him hard, his fingers only touched his skin lightly, thumb and index finger holding his chin up, but he didn't move. Ten did not put up any complaint to the touch, moreover letting his lips part so Taeyong could admire what he was seeing for a little bit longer. 

Absent minded, he almost wanted to brush Ten's bottom lip with his thumb, watching that the teeth that lined under them were really pointier than human's fangs, perfect, even, white and thin. 

The view made him uneasy, for there was a question popping in his brain that embarrassed him, and it was all about a curious wonder. 

He shook the thought off, as if he had put his finger through a candle’s flame, yet he couldn't avoid to see the stomach-churning gesture of Ten, lapping his tongue on one of his needle-like canines, leisurely. 

Taeyong more than probably let out a bated breath before freeing him. He got a fervent feeling that threatened him with making his cheeks color. He tried to remind himself some calm. Maybe being a closer friend with Ten meant being closer with him in the tactile way, ain’t there nothing wrong with that, it was useless to feel so panicky all the time. 

A giggle reached his ears in the middle of their silence, nonetheless. 

"Oh, baby, curiosity is a bad ally when it comes to me" Definitely, his cheeks blushed furiously. And more when, by surprise, the blondie leaned on him and wrapped his arms around his waist, chin leaning on his chest and tilting to his face to stare at him. "Haven’t you been doing some research? I guess books don't mention the fun things you seem to be interested on"

“Oh” mumbled the elder one, mortified on the spot as he watched with awe the funny expression on Ten’s face, pose still splashed with class. “S-so you know about that?”

Is not like he feared anything the fox could do to him, not entirely, he just didn’t know what he was feeling beyond sensing he was confused. 

His mind was bloated, but before he could close the circle of his conclusions, Ten had let him go with a quiet jitter. 

He moved too fast for him, Taeyong was only learning to walk in comparison. 

"Baby, if you don't want people finding out certain secrets, such as your deep curiosity, you have to think twice about who you invite to your bed" he said, sticking his tongue out and catching it between his teeth in a playful gesture. The one with the gray hair retreated slowly, going to land on the chair at the other side of the table and watching Ten rejoicing on the effect he caused right and left. “Or at least close the book when you pull it aside on the desk” 

“I’ll have to take that as a yes” 

“Next time just ask me” he said, shrugging. 

Taeyong buried his face in his hands and surprised Ten when his shoulders started shaking while he laughed in disbelief, mocking himself for his clumsiness, before snapping his head back up and taking air in to freshen up. 

“I didn’t want to spark an awkward mood or something if I asked straight to your face” 

“It’s funny how you are made” said Ten, also amused. “Letting me in your home is fine and an obligation for you, but you draw the line at asking me about myself” 

“Okay, so I’ll ask. Directly.” he announced, maybe too emboldened by the course of their conversation. In his voice there was a tone of genuine interest to know what the answer would be. “Do you really do that?”

"Do what?"

“What the book says. Kumihos really go around fooling humans and doing... things they’ll regret later?”

“Well, it's not like I do nothing but that. I have friends, hobbies, and a life of my own without implying humans that want to be idiots. In fact, I can also be a lucky charm. But from time to time… yes” said Ten, rather unbothered, raising an eyebrow slightly with a compelling grimace. “Just with those that are in need of a lesson they’ll never forget”

“So that part of your fame is true”

“I guess it is” he shrugged. "Some humans are too salty when they discover their own flaws to fix them, so instead they write how lame we are and put the fault on whatever that comes handy" 

Taeyong nodded with another question in the tip of his tongue. He hesitated whether he should ask him or not, but as he had already admitted to himself, he was all curious about Ten’s nature and he had already been careful enough around him. Is not like hiding it would be useful anymore, Ten had caught him red-handed. 

"You have that strange skill you showed me. How do you pick who you… how… to mess with them?"

"Oh?” Interesting, very interesting for a question made by no other but the lone wolf. The older one saw the brief brush of Ten’s tongue over his lip to then keep smiling. “It depends on the type of screw-up they are destined to do. It also depends on my mood, you know? At the end of the day, I’ll be finding myself in unnecessary pains if I go to play the lust card with someone that does nothing for me. But if I feel like it and the person is really committed to have the walk of shame on a sunday morning…” 

He left the phrase incomplete, and let his lips quirk up from one corner, then parted a centimeter, making it obvious for anyone with the bare minimum of analytic power. 

"So they fall for sex with no love? Then what's the point of it?"

"Fun?" Suggested Ten amused, as if ironically giving him an option that he had never contemplated before. Taeyong would be lying if he said he wasn’t close to blush. Again. "You are demure, uh? Well, it must be true that wolves have a sense of family" 

“They say so, but here I am all by my own...” he said, giving an open exit to his compunction. 

“Aah” As they conversed, the blonde had walked stealthily until he was behind him and, with the same soundless movement, his hand dropped over his grayish hair, caressing it carefully and slowly at the crown of his head. His fingers deepened further, fingertips gently massaging his scalp lightly. “You seem to have doubts”.

Taeyong had stopped moving, but not in a stiff way. He was calm, and Ten could feel his body under his palms, puffing with every intake of air he took, softening between his delicate hold. 

Smiling for himself, he let his hand touch the back of his neck and press carefully on his upper back, following the shape of his spine drawing a pattern under his skin. 

He heard the small instinctual snarl the wolf built inside his throat. 

“You like this, don't you?" The quiet murmur in his ear made his skin grow goosebumps.

Taeyong pouted all sulky, knowing that Ten wasn't looking at his face to see him crumble. He felt like his voice may come out shaky if he spoke so he confined himself to close his eyes and feel the pleasure and the sweet smell emanating from him messing with the rate of his heart to steal all its order. 

"I do" he hummed.

"That’s why I think you are a pup.” A shiver took control of his body, being traversed by the wave of tickles caused by the fluid sound of Ten's voice being whispered in his ear, and fingers letting his gray hair curl round his perfectly manicured fingers. “I bet you'd have such a fun time if you loosened up with me" 

His words, his ways, his timbre… all was so stimulating for him to not feel the raise of his blood to his face, heat making his brain waves sloppy. 

Then, he felt a hot breath on his neck curling against his skin and all of a sudden, his blazing lips marking an invisible spot under his jawline. 

A swell of pure pleasure ran across his entire blood system. His lips were so soft and moist. He almost waited for the puncturing pain of his sharp fangs finally easing his doubts. 

His head was spinning, falling again on that magnetic field that sent a tiny noise out of his mouth. 

“Gosh" he said licking on his own lips to fight the dryness he couldn't help to feel "I told you not to do that thing with me again”

Ten's fingers stopped on his scalp with a little bit of a jumpy feeling. He squirmed behind the chair, standing straight again resting his hands on the back of the wood. 

“You did... That’s why I only used it once, Taeyong” 

He sounded out of tune, suddenly, and the mood cooled down vertiginously. 

Taeyong joined his hands on his lap and squeezed them together. If that was true, and Ten's voice was unsettled enough to not be joking, it meant that he was stepping into a tricky ground, one that was tricky for real. Because what he was feeling at that moment, craving more of him every time, was definitely real and a different thing from what he first expected of their sudden coexistence, no option of switching it off even by begging hard. 

If he wasn’t lying it was just… fondness. 

It was like if he was falling sick, he made him feel like that, all dizzy and breathless. Every muscle in his body had knotted up as the realization began flooding in his brain with the ‘what if?’ wonders, vertigo closing his airways just by noticing the house had a different sparkle since he had arrived. 

Taeyong had that wannabe indulgent syndrome, trying so hard to do his absolute best in everything even when he wanted to remind himself to slow the pace down. He wanted everything that seemed to be good, or he’d feel like he was crushing. For someone like that, that had been the same since childhood, having a desire for someone in such a blunt way was dangerous, he knew, because people ended up leaving at the end, like that time back when he was young. 

But he needed to know, his blood was already hot enough to reject it, he needed to try it out.

He stood up, catching his breath in a desperate intent of avoiding the things that would become evident to his own reasoning if he kept thinking about them. 

Maybe to build some courage, too but it was just that when he looked at the fox everything to the last drop of his senses vanished in a flash, just as he had promised him once but he couldn’t regret it one bit. After all, guardian or not, loner or not, Taeyong was still a wolf within his walls, and with the vibration of a neck kiss going down to awaken their bodies, beasts don’t stop to overthink before they break free from the cage. 

“You know? I take it back” he blurted.

The ghost of a smile painted Ten’s eyeline in a quick strike. 

"What do you take back, baby?" 

“I don’t think I was learning a lot from those books, so I don’t know, show me. It’s better, right? So don’t... go easy on me."

Suddenly, everything became white noise except for one thing. Ten's eyes were burning all dark as he approached his host again and wrapped his arm around his waist, pulling him closer. 

“But you returned the pearl willingly, so why would I?”

“A-are you… going to leave now?”

Ten shook his head almost imperceptibly, still sneering. 

He didn’t know if it was magic, he didn't know exactly what it was, it was hard to point directions while lost in the feeling of his lips pressing on his jawline like they had been doing before, with an open mouthed kiss, pace so slow it was agonizingly arousing, leaving a fresh patch of wetness behind. Then, his pink cheek was the victim of the peck, lashes caressing Ten's faces as his eyes shut down with the weight of a stone. 

Maybe it was too naive of him, but his hands clutched on the woolly cardigan over his shoulders, letting the igniting blow fall on his lips. 

His mouth felt so rigid at first, as if the blonde had forgotten he was kissing him, but in a second it softened under Taeyong’s and molded so good together, devastating, allowing him in with a breath that made his thoughts fly. About how he thought Ten would be rushed and dragging him all across the kitchen, but instead, his hands had landed on his hips and were slowly feeling his sides up, soaring over his back and pushing him against his chest.

It was so simple, that Ten felt absurd. And mindlessly right. 

Taeyong's arms immediately wrapped around his neck avidly and, before he could even figure out how, he activated him to remember that he was supposed to be giving him a strong taste of it, kissing him deeper and harder, with a dire necessity of it and no signals of wanting to ease off. 

The freshness melted on Taeyong’s crisp lips when they pulled apart to catch their breath and their eyes met for an instant. In his mind, the hunter-like fox pupils flashed a dangerous feeling that had him in awe. The colors of the forest fainting on his vision to let him return at his lips, again and again. 

Ten let his hands drop to his ass, stroking through the soft jeans, pressing their bodies together, squirming around as if Taeyong was back to the first times he clumsily tried to make out with someone he liked in the back of the kitchen garden. 

When Ten came back to him he couldn’t help but thinking that his kisses were either too experienced in comparison with his or just too much to handle, making him roll his hips against him again with the ache between his legs getting stronger. He kissed him gently but rough, every feeling seemed to have space to filter into it. His mouth was surprisingly soft for a smug fox like him, becoming teeth over lips and tongue over everything, passion hitting Taeyong hard enough for him to stop doubting what it was every time he came around, and he couldn’t help but to angle his hips against him and fist his jacket harder mixed up with him grinding against him. 

He felt the smile of the fox spreading under his lips. "What is it?"

“Bite me, please” 

Ten chuckled darkly. “Where?”

“Here” murmured Taeyong as his hand traced a line down from his neck to his collar. His own stroke almost gave him the shivers but he had to definitely press down a moan as Ten’s teeth nipped hard, making him arch his back for him before his tongue licked the spot where he had bitten to ease the stingy feeling a bit. 

“You say please? What a surprise” he hummed, cocky but sweet. His hands were at the older’s hip bones, caressing him lightly with his thumb. He leaned further over him, both almost thrown over the kitchen table where Taeyong was pressed against receiving a trace of bites on the open collar. Ten was taking more time than he really needed, feeling the soft purr of Taeyong under his action with the quiet move of his hips searching for the attention he was needing down there. “Your picture must come out in the dictionary next to the definition of good boy” 

Not having processed the heavy words of the blonde, Taeyong felt how he moved his hands from his hips until his fingers were playing with the border of his jeans, tugging almost like promising him to go beyond, but not really giving him what he wanted most. 

He continued to play his fingers along his stomach and chest, his every touch felt like an electric shock, and Taeyong’s reaction was so noticeably eager every time, moving his head into the crook of his neck, letting his lips trail up, over his jawline, and finally allowing them to nibble lightly at the silver pendant of his ear.

"Oh, please" he repeated just there, where only he could hear him, proving a point without wanting it. With that, he began to plant soft, wet kisses along his ear lobe and down to his neck again.

He was absent minded, anyways, because Ten kept what he was doing with him, drawing circles on his skin, under his shirt. 

“Want me to go that far?” The fox took the moment to ask him, looking at him in the eye and seeing his face in a disarray of sensations, with his lips glossy under the dying light of the evening and his eyes dark and pooling with want. 

The wolf really was different from the majority of people he had crossed paths with, the way he gazed at him, still stellar while coated in passion, took him out of himself. 

“Yes” he said in just a breath. It made Ten melt how fast and easily he started pleading for things like a desperate angel. “Right now” 

“Impatient… I like that” giggled the smaller one as he could hear his breathing getting heavier with every inch his hand dropped over his crotch. Taeyong’s lips parted to let out a sensual breath when he pressed it airily. It was barely anything but his pulse quickened. “Do you want me to touch you?”

“Yes…”

Taeyong could only think about how good Ten guessed him every time, as if he had known him forever, figuring out his most sensitive corners and noticing everything about him. He had his ways to see everything that made him and turn it into something amazing. Impatient? He was, and a lot. Obliging? Even more. 

His fingers went to graze the skin over the elastic band of his underwear, drawing circles on the skin of his lower stomach under the shirt, teasing him playfully. 

“Where? Here?”

“No” his voice became quieter with each word, blinking fast and gulping down a noise. “Little lower”

Then he caressed his inner thigh, putting a firm grip on his upper part. His thumbs were resting just below his center, making him roll his hips against him keenly. His palm then started feeling him all the way up to his groin, provoking a shiver to shake all his anatomy. 

With hooded eyes Ten palmed him through the material, earning more of his choked up sounds in return. 

“Here?” 

Taeyong shut his eyes and hummed as his erect dick, confined on his pants brushed against Ten’s palm. Something strong called longing filled his body with determination, so his hand gripped the blonde hard, grounding their hips down together and submerging into an open kiss on his neck, sucking his flesh avidly. 

His eyes squeezed shut, nonetheless, and Ten honestly had never felt something so hot in his life, his body starting to react with a special drive. 

“Yes” he moaned as a smuggled answer against his throat, messy and damp with the moist of his lips spreading over him. 

“You like it? Want more?” Ten rolled his hips up too, leaving his plans aside and getting carried away by Taeyong’s eager moves, trying to increase his own pleasure. 

“Yes, I want more” he purred with a hot honeyed voice of implication, hands down surrendering to play whatever Ten was playing with him. “I want it all”

“Fuck, if you keep talking like that, Taeyong I... just let’s go to your bed” said Ten, words on the border of evolve into a growl. 

He felt like he could resist no more, not when Taeyong’s breath had become so shaky and his quiet sounds came a bit higher, providing him a lead to how much of a loud person he would happen to be. He had to grab his hand and start pulling to the bedroom. 

Taeyong knew that all of his aspect was a disheveled image of himself, that his hair was falling on his eyes and that he had an almost sadistic hard on under his pants provoked by the one he should be looking after, but he didn’t care about his impatience showing up. He placed himself on the bed, getting rid of his jeans and the cotton shirt once and for all, nipples hardening with the hit of cold air and sending a quick tingle to his navel contributing to all of that madness. 

Just for a moment of clarity, he stared at Ten from the bed, coming after him and not looking less of a chaotic mess than Taeyong himself. He shoved the red cardigan to the side, together with the t-shirt, exposing a flawless abdomen, flat and smooth, only interrupted by the dark thick line of the tattoo curling inwards. 

Taeyong sighed between his lips like looking at a mirage, but Ten was on his way to straddle his hips, on top of him at the edge of the bed, where he began to rock his hips back and forth, gently grinding their fronts against each other.

“God, I wanted to take this slow”

His smile was so lovely when the wolf looked up to his face that the tiny evil-coated giggle seemed condonable to him. It must be fun to know that Taeyong would endure the teasing without trying to escape, he was clearly rejoicing with the way he whined and squirmed under him, hips buckling against his. 

It was driving him insane, it's not like he could complain because he lacked a very clear warning. But in fact… in fact Ten was right in the fact that he wouldn’t even care about something he liked so much. 

For that matter, it didn’t take Ten too long to search for the newly exposed skin on his shoulders and plant his lips on them to start a reddish mark, feeling the smooth skin against his very own, all over the place with his nails playing with the pink buds on his chest. He was mewling with each one of his touches, making the blonde grin. 

“I love how responsive you are” 

He heard him give him compliments with a heated heart, his hand gripping the belt loops on Ten’s trousers to look up with big pleading eyes. 

“I want to take them off” 

Surprisingly, he stood up in front of him as a queue for Taeyong to act. 

“Pleasure yourself, baby” with the queue he unzipped him and slid the jeans down, dragging the briefs with them and pulling everything off until it was only clothes laying on the floor. 

Well, his breath hitched. It was like the steam of a hot shower was filling the room as he looked at his naked form, lips parted for the bliss of freedom, muscles outlined on his legs under his skin and semi-hard cock on display. 

He had done that to him. 

He flushed again for sure, but his body had decided to take control for itself, so he jumped into an open kiss on his chest, passionately. The teasing Ten was giving him had got to him, becoming a little bit more of an aggressive little animal. 

Proud, he could hear Ten breath getting ragged, his pulse quickening beneath his lips, leaving wet tracks as he went lower with his tongue and he slid down from the bed onto the floor. He wanted him on his mouth, he wanted his hot, hard erection melting on his tongue like a spoonful of poisonous honey. 

He had never wanted to make someone moan so hard until that moment when the blonde gasped.

“Taeyong, you...” he hissed, surprised even, watching Taeyong’s lips be pushed apart by his flesh. For a moment he forgot how to speak, tilted his head back and gritted his teeth silently, in awe with the lips of the older wrapping around him as a wet spot grew cutely on his underwear. He couldn't blame him for getting excited, he knew he himself was hardening more and more between his lips as he licked on the underside of his shaft. “Well, fuck. Look how good you look doing that” 

As he sucked going down further on him, Taeyong moaned for the unexpected compliment, making Ten shiver all over due to the vibration and he pushed his gray hair gently to pull him back, with a moan included. 

Taeyong looked at him with the biggest black eyes and his lips all slippery and wet, thread of saliva still connecting them both. He traced his bottom lip carefully with his tongue, wetness present on every inch of it. 

Ten couldn't recall a prettiest person surrendering to him. 

"Since you sound so sweet, I can't let your mouth so busy with that, it would be a pity" 

He forced him up and pushed him back on the bed again until he was laying on his elbows watching without missing a second of how Ten looked at him dead in the eye while driving his fingers to his lips and licking them straight with his tongue. It was, by far, the lewdest scene he had ever seen. 

It was just something in the fox that made everything he did look explosive. 

Almost instantly, he spread his legs and lifted his butt from the bed, taking off his underwear slowly, hissing under his breath thanks to the strong hit of cold air. He was staring down at himself, almost getting embarrassed of how much his dick was already hard and wet, pulsing with the heat. He slowly pushed one hand down his length, rubbing the moist back along his length, then back up to the tip of the head but he stopped before it went too far and he gave a spectacle not being able to stop himself. 

His heart choked his throat even more when he lifted his eyes and he caught the glimpse of the sight he earned from his own performance, as the fox, with his fingers shiny and still hooked on his lips and his tongue spreading the dampness until it almost dripped down, had stopped to carefully look at him.

There wasn't anyone who had looked at him the way Ten did right there and then, with fascination.

His heart started beating out of control as the blonde flicked his tongue one last time making him imagine him using it between his legs. He started to approach him, pushing him back on the mattress, crawling over him, caressing his chest and his stomach with one of his wet fingers until he drew goosebumps on his pale skin and made him yelp. 

"You are so pretty" he said with his tone dropping an octave or two, hand slipping between Taeyong’s thighs. 

“How much?”

Taeyong was letting out so many pretty noises that his heart was beating hard at how insatiable he looked, becoming in a second all about his type. 

"The most fucking beautiful person I have ever seen" 

"I need you to touch me" He pleaded. 

He didn't think he could be more turned on, and yet Taeyong felt himself slowly begging for his touch as he praised him, angling his hips to feel closer, forgetting about that supposed selfless trait of his to be greedy. 

"Don't worry" He grinned at him, sultry just right before Taeyong breathed in sharp and quickly, feeling the first digit push and dig deeply without resistance, and he moaned as he began to be spread. "As I said,  I am going to make you love this" 

There’s not any free space on his mind to doubt the words he was told, as he pushed his finger further, still delicate, finding its way inside him. And then he pulled out and came back adding the second one. Well, that marked a lot of a difference for a touch-deprived Taeyong, and the wolf’s hands had to grab the sheets tightly suppressing a sound that made Ten’s smile widen when his fingers resumed the action, pumping inside him and circling to stretch him. 

Taeyong started to writhe over the puffy white duvet of the bed, now a mess, as pre-cum started leaking out of the tip of his cock, dripping onto his navel. The fox’s digits felt expertly within his walls, pressing and rubbing. 

“That feels amazing, Ten” he panted with a bead of sweat dropping down on his back as the rhythm quickened and his hips waved to meet the pace, which slowed down again, teasing the edge of his resilience. "Oh my god, do it quick"

Sticky sounds filled the room but they drowned under the heavy moan that Taeyong emitted in the time he shoved another finger in slowly in the tight grasp of his entrance. He let himself ride back against his hand, Ten pulling an eyebrow up with the eager response to a rather insane stretch that made him gasp and sigh as he inched inside as far as he could go. 

Being so impatient he had the perk of liking it certainly raw, there wasn’t a lot to doubt. 

"Poor little pup, doesn’t anybody give you what you deserve?" he teased with fake pity in his voice, withdrawing his hand and making Taeyong let out a tortured whimper with disappointment. He pressed back in, a lot harder than before, moan spilling definitely from him so heavy and lustful, so wicked. "Is that no one takes the time to spoil your tight ass?"

"N-no"

"No? You are needy? Need me to fuck you bad?" He curled his fingers, hitting mercilessly the bundle of nerves that had Taeyong throwing his head back, shuddering with pleasure. 

"Yes, I need you" he choked out, pleasing Ten so much that his body heated even more, steaming out like a burning coal in the snow. His cock was seriously twitching with every word that Taeyong tried to say between his gasp as he moved his fingers more and deeper with every trust and he leaned further on him, teeth catching on his pink nipple, tongue latching on it. Taeyong felt like his breath was cutting out like a flickering light, robbed from all of his oxygen. "Need y-ou to fuck me bad" 

He pulled them out again making Taeyong cough out some moans and whines, squirming on the bed. 

"Don’t you worry, baby, because I will" he growled, freeing the animal to let it run towards him with a lightspeed velocity. "Turn over. Ass up ” 

Eagerly, he complied and flipped over, knees on the mattress, just like his elbows with his arms stretched on the bed and stood there for a few seconds with his stomach feeling butterflies, waiting for Ten to approach him, feeling his hands caress his hips to hold them softly, tracing the line of the spine on Taeyong’s back with his finger until he could feel the tailbone. 

It was the first time someone had him in that position, all spread and exposed to the lewd eyes of someone else. Someone like him, unbearably mesmerizing by nature. But he was taking so much pleasure on it, he loved the way Ten looked at him when he showed him his all and the blonde seemed to drool as if watching a rip fruit. 

He was  feeling the blood rushing to his dick, too heavy and aching to notice he was moaning while Ten stroked his back with genius hands, so fluid and poist they felt like hot water.  His brain was a total mess that made his legs a bit wobbly letting his body flop on the bed. 

“Hey, hey, who told you you can bring your ass down?” the gentle wave of his voice shifted when he actually let his hand fall on his ass with a smack. A dark moan left Taeyong, his face turning red instantly, because he heard himself and heaven knows he did not plan to sound like that. He blinked rapidly trying to handle all the excitement boarding him. Ten chuckled. “I saw that coming. The good boy likes to be spanked” 

The wolf swallowed saliva and forced his legs to stand on his previous position, eyes closing fast when Ten made his hot, stiff dick stroke in between his asscheeks, but the dark only made the sensations grow sharper, losing his mind in his imagination of how should he look behind him, with one hand on his hips and the other guiding his dick, brushing against his ass.

He pushed it in, hips thrusting forward as Taeyong’s head flopped between his shoulders, face pointing to the mattress and mouth gaping with a silent moan as Ten kept moving inside and burying his needy length until Taeyong was fully filled and wincing.

At the way he bucked his hips, he could only moan. 

The younger squeezed his eyes shut and let his head drop back at how fucking nice was being inside him. He held him in place with his hands on his waist. Taeyong had the smallest and prettiest waist in the world. He pushed himself in with a powerful move that hit a spot so tastefully that Taeyong rolled his eyes back. The wolf was already shaking for the amount of pleasure he was being given, just at the start, and let him fill him with the chaotic rhythm of them fucking tirelessly.

“Fuck” he grunted making Ten chuckle a little. 

“Language” 

He did not have the capacity to stop and think if that was a real command. 

"Come on… please…" 

As he practically begged him, he pulled his bottom back and deeper into him, body stretching beautifully, no shynes for being exposed anymore if it was for Ten and his deep eyes with narrow pupils, pushing against his cock as he slid in and out of becoming more and more fierce as Taeyong gave him reaction. Every trust was a moan, his body spasming under him with his mouth agape, lost in the pleasure like nobody else could. 

“Fuck!”

It was amazing to see Taeyong unraveling like that. He was irresistible. His skin beamed with sweat, his body was like a dancing flame and his silky eyes made the world much better. On his forehead, his silver hair was sticking with sweat and his walls around him so tight, unbelievably good. 

Maybe it was escalating a lot more than Ten had foresaw, maybe the fox’s blood was on fire, but something was stirring deep down inside of him so he began to pull all of the way out to slam it back in again. 

Taeyong had been alone for a lot of time, but in his eyes he could see that it wasn't something he resonated with when he held his glance. Even there in the bed Ten didn’t want to share, he went crazy with the smallest touch and he was determined to make him go more than crazy. 

As how Ten saw it, he deserved more. The most. 

Ten's hand reached his, upon the mattress, fingers lacing to guide it in between of his legs, palm entering in contact with his length. 

He breathed out louder to the simple contact, noticing how hard he was leaking. 

"Touch yourself, baby" Taeyong flinched out of pleasure, taking the hard dick on his palm and stroking down with Ten guiding his move relentlessly, once and then twice. "Come on, how does it feel on your hand?" 

Angling his head back a little, his eyes looked into Ten's, and there was naked lust in those sparkly microcosms. There was something on the version of Taeyong that was consumed by pleasure and desire that put Ten closer to finish. 

"Please, can I have some more?"

"Have some more"

The pumping motions came back, faster, matching the pace of his hips slamming into him with that raw sound of wet, as Ten allowed him to move, freeing his wrist to drag his nails on his shoulder blade as he gave up and moaned as well, caught in that mess of an encounter. 

"Yes! Please, yes! Please, make me cum"

"Fuck, Taeyong! Imma make you come so hard"

An ache was developing inside Taeyong, warmth spreading out from his navel over the rest of his body. Struggling as he practically panted with need, back arching so keen to let that waves of ecstasy take over him. 

He couldn't take it anymore.

He didn't know where it came from but he screamed as he climaxed hard, clenching around him,  back arching with the force of the orgasm hitting the peak,  the burn inside him only getting worse as the smallest did not slow down at all. Rather the opposite, moving roughly, fox eyes shut tight whilst Taeyong's body went through the experience of a pleasure unlike anything he had felt before because of his oversensitive nerve endings. 

He could hear Ten breathing, heavier and faster and he knew. 

"Do it inside, I want all of you" he mumbled with the last of his voice, sending Ten over the edge.

His arm wrapped around the wolf’s shaky shoulders from behind, pulling him up with his back against his chest.

Taeyong could feel the high temperature of the pearl pendant burning on his back with a strong pulse, but maybe he was mistaking it with Ten's heartbeat running like a rebel. The different angle hit his overwhelmed spot way too deep, tears building up on his eyes and lips parting towards the ceiling with a loud sound.

"As you wish" 

His hands clenched on the sheets while Ten's blonde head flopped on his shoulder,  force striking into his spasming ass around him, slamming Taeyong straight into a second wave of orgasm, not able to get his breath into his lungs,  pounding inside him relentlessly a couple of times more, moaning quite loud and making Taeyong feel like swimming on lava when he painted his walls white. 

The hot, thick liquid trickled on his thighs with the last sloppy strokes before they both stood up on their knees, laced together by the steamed-up window. 

Taeyong felt the light touch on his forehead when Ten pulled his fringe back, giving him a fresh relief for a moment and a gentle peck on his cheek. And another one. And another one. 

"Baby, you okay?" he hushed on his ear, letting the minutes pass and the air cool down to ease Taeyong’s senses down. The latter let his head flop a fit to the side, forehead pressing on Ten’s cheek and face buried on his neck. 

"How did I do it?" 

Ten looked at him surprised but didn't not spare a lovely giggle as he caressed Taeyong's hips gently and helped him sit down over the duvet comfortably. 

His body was really sensitive after all of their game and the sparkles drew patterns on him when he moved too hard. 

However, Ten crawled a little bit to approach him, and then gave him a small peck on his lips. 

"Amazing, baby" he said so honestly that his own heart jumped on his chest in panic, words pushing out of him mercilessly. "Truly amazing"

Taeyong wrapped his arms around him one more time, very lightly, letting Ten kiss him once more. Deep, softly,  trailing his fingers across his cheek. And next, just as careful he moved away with his heart on his hand and an intense pressure over his chest. 


	7. Don't blame me

Taeyong woke up all fresh in the middle of the puffy duvet, a little bit embarrassed when he looked down and pulled up the blanket over his very naked body. He would have had to laugh at the sudden stroke of shyness, though, because he had been living far beyond the line just some hours prior. 

It wasn't of any use either, there was no one in the bed to stare at him with narrow feline pupils. He couldn’t say he was surprised, Ten was everything but steady.

He gave himself a moment to shake the sleep off his bloated brain, and let the flashing visions of the night give way to a new different day. He couldn’t point the moment when he had fallen asleep, but he certainly had a sound sleep. His eyes greeted the dayshine and his lungs expanded as he stretched out his muscles feeling extra energetic. 

Nothing like the walk of shame that Ten had mentioned, the sensation was nowhere near close. 

He stood up going to dress himself, airing his silver hair in front of the mirror, brushing it gently to get rid of the places where it had become flat after being pressed on the pillow. Then he applied some chapstick on his lips because either the cold of autumn or the act of making-out ardently had left his lips on the dry side, and he didn’t want them to start cracking painfully. 

His personal opinion on who to blame for their poor state placed quickly on one end when he looked lower, seeing the scratches covering his shoulder and the red round mark that he had just some inches above his collarbone. 

Get in a fight with a fox and that's what you get. 

He stroked the bite mark with his fingers, curious and with considerable delight about the way it looked on his body. He just liked it as it was, he thought the view gave him some beautiful and unrestrained touch to his skin, but breathed in, reminding himself of his own adherent nature to not spill it all across the place when he came out from the dormitory, pacing to the kitchen.

Just a bit of calm was more convenient, probably, at least until he tested the state of everything once they had kicked the slowly moving things of their lives to spin a little bit faster. 

"Hey"

"Hey, good morning" answered the other half of that emotional see-saw, still chewing on a peanut butter and jelly toast. 

He still looked sleepy, even being earlier than Taeyong and having more time to clear up. 

Ten was standing in the kitchen, body resting against the counter with a distracted air. He was already dressed up with a pair of dark jeans and a baby blue sweatshirt that looked as oversized on him as it did on the older one a couple days before, hoodie pulled up as his hair appeared to be disheveled in the morning, not without a charming domestic vibe to him.

For a moment, he stopped to consider going to him and kissing him good morning but he bit it down and went to sit around the table with a toast he picked up from the plate where Ten had put half a dozen of them for breakfast. 

"Waking up early again?"

"You said there was work to do at the outer zones of the forest and I know you are a morning bird, so I took my time to shake off the slumber"

"Doesn't seem like you achieved that" he mocked, letting himself flop on the chair and kind of regretting it a second later when he felt the sensitivity of his body smash against wood. 

Ten accompanied him with his jitter. 

There was irony in the fact that the fox was the one to feel the low bubbling of embarrassment at the bottom of his stomach as soon as he had woken up, but how could he stay there in his bed waiting for Taeyong to greet the morning breeze without moving onto an absolute panic? 

The night had been such a mess. Memorable but a complete mess. 

He had ended up all breathless and sticky, but more than anything, a bit dizzy, so he had decided he needed to have a shower after the bed showdown. He had been gone under the water torrent for not longer than a quarter of an hour, expecting it to light up his mind and, at his return, he had found Taeyong completely knocked out on the bed, still naked and sprawled facedown carelessly on the mattress. 

He found himself smiling as he observed him from the doorstep, looking at his delicate, sensitive boy exhausted because of his fault. Of course, he took pride in an image like that. 

The fox had to admit he had been quite excessive with him, he knew he had gone a bit too far, carried by his own enthusiasm blinding his mind, but his body had just asked him for it and he obliged, ending up blowing himself to bits too. 

So he couldn't just leave him like that, because he might be foxy but not an asshole. 

Anyone with empathy would have known that there was no way the wolf could sleep comfortably like that and have the decency to go for a wet towel and clean up his legs and stomach. Then he tucked him in, trying not to wake him up, to which Taeyong seemed to react half awake and half asleep wrapping his arms around Ten's waist to pull him down by his side.

He had asked him to stay. 

And like an idiot, like the absolute wrecking idiot he was, he let him get away with it and wrapped him in a cotton soft embrace that lasted all night and gave Ten plenty of time to consider that he wasn’t having the proper feeling of a just for fun experience. 

Now that was a bit more fucked up, feelings were… complex. But what did he expect from acting like he did?

"As I told you already: This wouldn't happen if you had coffee" 

“There’re a lot of types of tea in the cabinets, just pick one, I don’t mind” 

“I had a cup already but the caffeine content is a lot lower” he whined, making Taeyong smile. He still found him endearing like a friend he should have met during childhood to grow up together. Even after showing him his entire palette of colors. 

“Go and wash your face with cold water, then, we are leaving in fifteen minutes” 

“Fifteen minutes exactly? You really like to draw the diagram, don’t you?” taunted Ten, finishing the last piece of toast and the bottom of his tea cup before leaving to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. 

“Well, it was a suggestion, I want to clear things up as soon as possible, it really worries me that outside there is something off”

“Okay, don’t worry, I’ll be ready. We’ll find out, baby”

Luckily, his mood was loosening up seeing Taeyong all the relaxed and cool he must have been.

It was bugging him still when they hit the forest, strolling under the mat of brown lace made by the dry leaves on top of trees, ready to fall. It was making some noise in his mind that he was just walking towards the city once more, side by side with a wolf, and meanwhile, everything seemed like the type of soulful date that makes someone sigh. He was showing himself away to Taeyong and he… didn’t mind it that bad. He made Ten feel like he could breathe easy around him. 

Taeyong was walking ahead of him, as always marking the path that was unknown for the younger, who was surprised discovering how deep in the forest the cabin was. It must have been tiring to carry him for so many minutes when he had passed out just about a kilometer in the woods. 

He was walking confidently but something inside him was drowsy and had this certain gut feeling of something being wrong. It was normal, given the situation. He had expended everyday since he was born learning from his grandmother, the one that raised him when his parents passed away, to be a respectful person and take care of the very fragile balance that made that forest breath. Sometimes it was arduous to carry a task so heavy, especially when his grandmother left him too and he became the only one fully aware of his secret treasure of a world in between trees. 

With all of that, the preoccupation of finding something big enough to endanger his whole legacy was a big deal. His chest could burst if one single thing was able to swap years of work with the mere stroke of a pen. 

Maybe he was a little distracted by his storming brain, and he was even glad that Ten couldn’t notice that they had walked a couple of unnecessary wanders, forgetting that the smaller one had also confessed to him once that his brain wasn’t less of an annoying racket from time to time. 

Whatever the reason was, he took a false step over some branches that cracked under his feet and made him stagger, slipping with the muddy soil and slipping, falling on his but in the middle of the bushes.

“Hey, are you alright?” asked Ten crunching down by his side between the criss-crossing roots of an old tree to see if Taeyong had hurt himself. 

“Yes, I’m just…” The boy stopped himself one bit to stare at the fox that had turned his face to look at the front, giving him the map of his side profile and shiny quick-witted orbs showing from the corner of his sharp eyes thanks to the the batch of bobby pins that were holding his hair behind his ears as it had been growing more than it normally would be. He knew that Ten was able to catch signs of life or noise before he could, just because his sense of hearing was sharper. “What’s wrong?” 

He wasn’t so fond of the undertones that Ten’s expression seemed to carry when he looked back at him with those dilated pupils, about to hit compassion. He held his breath instinctively, trying to suppress for a moment that feeling that told him that Ten just wanted to answer using a gentle phrasing. 

"I'm not sure" 

"You can hear something, don't you? What is it?" He could feel the reluctance in the way tilted his head to the side and went over his bottom lip with his teeth. “Don’t… sugarcoat things for me, Ten, I need to know. This forest is a part of me”

"It was just a moment…” he said, with all the tact he could grab. “It sounded like a tall tree falling over" 

Taeyong's impatience to get down to business and end whatever was going on came through him like the undeniable force of a tide, getting on his feet and forgetting about brushing the mud of his clothes before heading to the direction Ten had looked up to, to the outer parts of the forest aa he had predicted. He tried to pay his best attention to his surroundings, hearing the rushed steps of the blonde following him through the bushes first. 

But then, he listened to it. A noise that was out of place and sounded like leaves catching in the air and wood hitting the ground. He speeded up his steps almost sprinting.

"Taeyong" called Ten, running behind him. "You should be careful, we don't know what is happening, it could be anything" 

"But I need to know!" 

“And what about yourself!? Who takes care of you?”

“That doesn’t matter now!”

Ten heard his answer with horror, but he didn’t know how to stop him from running without making him panic even more.

“It matters to me!” 

He kept going and going, the branches probably scratching his pale skin as he seemed to not have enough time to be pulling them apart, and, after running for some minutes, the sounds became more clear, louder and annoying as a dull noise was hurting the air. 

Everything smelted like sawdust and gasoline, which Ten knew were very likely to mean there were humans playing a part in the equation. They had a lot of tools to cheat nature, he knew well, and he didn’t like that. 

Taeyong pressed his body behind a tree to find himself a hideaway to look at the scene, white hair safe inside the dusky shade of the forest canopy, and so did Ten with a more calm pace- even though calm had left both of them minutes ago- behind another tree that was near. 

The changes of the world aren't something that happened one day and kept up from then on, they were like a clockwork that started with a little push. Technology arrived in the cities, the development of models carried on and the big corporations that had the licenses gathered the money like a fruit of their own plantation, becoming shameless in their way of moving.

A little at a time, they expanded, giving Taeyong a crude view of the forest he always held dear beginning to fall. 

It was hard for him to understand why they were cutting down their own environment, trees falling one by one to leave an empty hollow splashed with fallen branches and stumps. His mind couldn't wrap around the fact that they were hurting themselves and this refusal to comprehend started to turn him irritable because who wants to deal with such a nonsense. 

"What the fuck are they doing?" he stammered with a rigid, sad and angry tone, as if he was still fighting with the realization. 

Ten looked at him not really knowing what to answer or say. He hadn't thought it would be something like that, he hadn't connected the dots of how the floods were caused by a lack of trees and loose fallen branches on the ground. His mind sometimes failed to see the stupid aims of some people. 

"If you ask them, they'd probably say they are harvesting, but we both know they are going too far to buy that excuse" 

He was right, the plain space was too wide already, they should have been doing that for at least a couple of days already, there were too many fallen trees and a bunch of trucks carrying trunks to take them to the town for god knows what purposes. 

“How did they even arrive here? The majority of humans get so confused in this forest they end up losing the sense of orientation and getting lost, it’s only animals and dokkaebi that can run this f-” again, he stopped himself, looking at Ten for the first time since they arrived, as he had been unable to tear his eyes from the desolation of the clearing upon them. 

In an instant, the fox, usually quick in the uptake, grasped the meaning of such stare from the wolf. 

“Maybe Jaehyun followed after me” he suggested, very quietly. 

“Who?”

“The hunter, his name is Jaehyun” 

Taeyong inhaled deeply, trying to figure his misery out to put everything in the right place before speaking again, because Ten couldn’t make him sad like that, he refused to let that sink in. 

“Why would he?” 

“Spite, maybe frustration… I guess he really really wanted to catch me” he said with a tone new for Taeyong, as the fox sounded a bit disheartened. “He followed me from his home to here, after all, what impedes him to take a step further?”

“... what did you do?” aked Taeyong, scared of the answer but mind unable to turn its back to knowing what was all of that ruining his mood. 

At first he would have swallowed down his retort and move on, but he was in the very same place where the woodcuters kept knocking trees down with their noisy chainsaws. And although he already knew that hoping on a relationship like that, with such an odd pair, was veering to disaster, he couldn’t do anything but feel a deep deception exploding in his chest with a deafening force. 

“Uh? What do you mean?” Ten asked, probably just as offended as it looked like, guilt crystalizing in his guts with only four words of his older companion.

“You know his name, did you… piss him off?” 

“I… He doesn't even know this form of me. I was just passing by his window, maybe eavesdropping a little, but it was just because I had known of him for a while and saw he was so full of himself that I was curious to see what was making him so vain…” 

“Why!?” cut out Taeyong, suffering an explosion of crankiness that affected his voice directly and plainly “This is what you understand for ‘putting the blame on anything that comes handy for them’? Look at what you have done! Ten, really, this is not a stupid tantrum where they start breaking plates on your kitchen, this is our system!”

“I can see that this is a big mess, I don’t even agree with it, I would never. But I am not responsible for how assholes take their own frustration into destruction”

“But you lead them here, don’t you see?” 

“He tried to hunt me and lock me up for himself, what did you want me to do? You could have let me die too and avoid his fit but you saved me because you are not like that either. And I am glad that you aren't. Not for that it’s going to be your fault, you won’t see me blaming you for someone else’s mistakes!” 

"You are a creature of the forest, you should have known better and had a little bit more of respect" he squeaked, getting really nervous. He didn’t like confrontation but his entire life had started literally shattering in front of him, and there was no place for him to grasp some calm in the middle of such noisy, stinky, human mess. "You claim to be fair, pulling out a lesson for the ones who deserve but you behave just like them and bring more trouble. It only gets worse and worse because you pay them with the same coin. It bites the tail, shit. But because it's fun, it doesn't matter, right?" 

That made Ten flinch. It had stopped being for fun at some point in the middle of their thing but maybe that was just in his head. 

“I told you already that that’s not the only thing I do, I can do good things for them too, but those don’t shine as hard as the bad fame. Maybe wanting to mess with Jaehyun was not my best behaviour but at any moment I thought he had a shotgun or that he would take it this far.”

Taeyong stared at him for a single moment of silence, again out of his appearance that was cute almost all the time to leave him with that mature leader vibe. When the human-like hatred soaked through his pupils, he had a rough aspect. 

He sighed in a manner that made him sound sorrowful and yet unswerving. 

“Look. I think it would be better if you leave” He said in a murmur that left Ten gawking, as if he hadn’t heard it and had to lean closer to try again, but he had actually heard every word. He just didn’t know how to react to it. 

Not even Taeyong knew how to react to himself, he was just so confused and grieved that he couldn’t see through Ten’s explanations and tries to make him understand he was mistaken too, as if the fox hadn’t all of that patience reserved for anyone else. He just wanted to be alone for a second, and that everything could end. 

Ten took the heartache squarely, and connected to something unknown for him. 

He was still learning some sensations, and he knew it may be slow, but it was his only way to make amends with his sentiments, he was trying his best, he couldn’t just screw it up so soon. 

“What?”

“I gave you your pearl, your arm is doing a lot better and your wound will close completely soon. You have your home and your life down there and I know you can take care of it all by yourself now” 

"I don't wanna leave… please. I didn't want to provoke this" he finally articulated, feeling that something inside him had moved to the wrong place, giving up to the attempt of sounding like he was taking all of that any well. “I know that this forest is very important for you, and an amazing place. I didn’t want this to happen”

“But it did happen. It is happening”

“But it… I… you have to forgive me, Taeyong, I didn’t want this to happen, I didn’t know he would follow me. Please, understand that I don’t feel good about this too”

"You know what? Forget it, you would never understand how I feel now" he said with a soft voice that hurted the fox twice the amount it would have hurt him to be yelled at. 

Ten wanted to clutch a hand on his heart so bad when he heard his words but he pushed himself not to. He felt his face starting to ache as he clenched his jaw forcing his sentiments down. 

It was not in his plans to cry in front of him. 

He swallowed. 

He just couldn’t be there, letting things pass by him without rhyme or reason while he waited for something to change in the impulsive choices he had made sometime in the past so Taeyong could like him more, he couldn’t expect a magis swing of happenings that made Taeyong said he was joking. 

He knew that one can’t unring the bell. 

“Sure. If that’s what you want, then.. it’s been… such a nice time. I liked it” 

The gray-haired one looked at him, eyelashes dropping a little for the joyless taste of his own blood at that moment. 

Ten performed an unhurried footwork full of grace, changing into a small creature with pale fur, honey colored eyes of narrow pupils and two flowy tails. It was smaller than one of those red country foxes and his ears were almost bigger than his head, with sharp eyes decorated with red lines all around. 

Even with his other form, Taeyong still found him painfully beautiful. 

He was glad Ten was so swift even with the blotch of red staining his paw still, because the fox soon turned his face from him, breaking the difficult moment they were having and turning into a blur in a wild run out of the forest, trying to be sneaky between the remaining bushes until he skillfully jumped to the branches of a tree and kept his way in the elevated way out to avoid anyone that could find him any interesting. 

He didn’t want anyone to touch him in the slightless, and less a human from that badge of stupids that only seemed to ruin his life for the sake of self-satisfaction. 

If he had wanted just anyone to follow after him, it was just who he was leaving behind and knew wouldn’t be running towards him that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The term "dokkaebi" that is used in this chapter refers to the korean word to define spiritual beings that are different and, generally, more powerful than humans. In english is usually translated as "goblins" and it has a similarity with the japanese term "yokai". Since it's hard to describe this word in western culture, i kept the korean word.


	8. Don’t leave us alone

To say that Ten was doing fine would be a big lie that he couldn’t even tell himself, which he did sometimes to convince himself of states of mind that, if not true, were easier to carry for him. 

He, definitely, wasn’t holding it together very well. 

At first, he had been crying way harder than he thought he would, but then his tears dried on his cheeks and gave way to a state where he felt sleepy all the time, alone and empty.

He hated to admit it, but there was something stuck inside him that opposed to him moving on from that one. Something deep and important that told him things wouldn't be the same once he had broken his tie with the wolf, that his heart wouldn't beat in the same way.

The amount of days that he had spent with a very low energy that had him trapped in the comfy bubble of protection of his bed, rose to a couple of them, maybe three if he counted the day he arrived back home. His activity could be summarized in basic needs of going to the toilet, eating muffins because he didn't feel like cooking and shifting from the bed to the couch like a dead weight.

He intended to stop such useless desolation, but that seemed to be only a product of his head and, meanwhile, his heart was revealing against the plans. 

It made him tremble, the devastation of naked feelings that had sprouted in his chest really intimidated him, as it always had. He had been playing the game of keeping his own heart safe, disconnecting his feelings from him, but finally, he stooped so low and he couldn’t get up.

During those days he had spent in the forest, without really knowing how, he had been thinking that maybe Taeyong would be the one to silently help him get over that irrational fear of his, which he was aware of, but he wasn’t expecting the wolf to launch him directly into the cold pool of harsh reality to get him attuned. 

Perhaps he deserved it just that way, because Taeyong wasn't there to educate him, he could do so much better. 

He had scoffed to himself, wondering why he though that Taeyong would fall as easily as humans did. No, Taeyong stopped to be decent and critic with his idiot mistakes. 

And that was the worst part, watching how his own colors revealed in front of his eyes more and more, like looking at a cruelly sincere mirror, showing him with irrefutable evidence that Taeyong had solid reasons to push him aside, that Ten was on the wrong and had been for a long time, trying to paint it as if he was being fair. 

The words the wolf had told him had become a source of guilt, because Ten was totally able to see his flaws reflecting on them. He wasn't arrogant enough that time to give a disdainful gesture of his hand and rest relevance to the matter. He played with people, like a sociopath, he lead them to the trap and then forgot them. 

And then, besides the guilt, it was the way in which Taeyong took root in Ten’s heart, the same way the dateless  erman's birches rooted in the forest,  in a way he had never let another creature do. He didn't know what it was exactly, but Taeyong had just something in him that made Ten be able to share things and become all vulnerable in front of him. 

He was his full self when they were together and Ten knew what that meant.

He had never been so heartbroken before. 

Some stumbles? Of course he had had them, sometimes relationships fall over when some time passes. But that time it felt too real and sudden. 

He was holding on the pearl that was nested on his chest, feeling the dim pulse of it as a reminder that he was on the low and still sensing a quiet murmur of Taeyong's sparkling vibration lasting inside it. 

It was ironic that he had been so reluctant to share the house with Taeyong at first and suddenly felt like the cold of his own was lingering in his skin, filtering in his bones like a ghost. He craved his presence and the soothing sound of his breath as he cooked, painted or fell asleep next to him. He wanted to listen to him talking about his music elucubrations, touch him, getting joy and desire creeping into his chest instead of the sorrow. He wanted to see his dark eyes shining like stars when they watered full of pleasure. 

Oh, fuck. 

All of that was what he was trying to avoid from the start, especially when the older one had stolen his pearl and wore it, asking Ten how he thought it fitted him. The words had been caught inside his throat like a sturdy piece of wood, wondering why the first answer that popped in his brain was nothing blunt or aggressive but a mild "not that bad". And then "fine" and, lastly, "pretty". 

However, he wasn't able to keep his senses to himself, and he was no longer in a place where he could take a step back and breath, he had crossed the not return point when he went straight to his lips, just to realize that he had slipped from the edge of the precipice. 

He was falling, and the hit was going to be strong from the height it had taken. 

The sound of someone knocking on the door of his apartment almost made his heart ascend to his throat, scaring him for the sudden kick out of his own moment of despair. 

He forced himself to get up, wrapping his body on the blue hoodie and going to open without minding his pajama pants. 

"Oh?" a curl played with the corners of his lips, drawing a faint smile despite the static numbness of his soul. "Would you see who's visiting his favorite person ever?" 

"Hey, you are back”

“That’s what it seems”

“Oh yeah, not to be nosy, but I noticed you didn't drop by for a while and abandoned all fucking form of online communication. Ten, fuck, we were all scared that something happened to you, what the heck!?" 

In front of his door there was his next door neighbor, Sicheng. He was a tall, young boy, flexible and long like if his bones were longer than an average human's size. It reminded Ten of a newborn deer learning how to walk but Sicheng had a lot more of grace to his gestures. He had a choppy haircut, styled in that lovely way that gave him a fresh vibe all over him and beautiful eyes shaped under a tint of mystery. 

They had met by the coincidences of life, being that they owned both the apartments on that floor of the building and saw each other assiduously in the elevator, at the mailboxes and so on; so they had ended up being friends and hanging out, since Sicheng was the kind of person people likes to keep round, so cute and funny.

"My phone died"

"For two weeks?"

"Yeah, like fully dead. I dropped it and it cracked. I had to buy a new one”

“You went to Seoul to get it or what?”

“Wanna come in, baby?" offered the fox tired, trying to answer questions that would make his nonsense sound like it wasn't such, opening the door to let him in. 

Sicheng hummed and nodded, leaving his shoes aside and pacing inside the apartment. 

At least he would be distracting. 

"Coffee?" 

"Would be nice" 

The kid sat on the round table that Ten had in the kitchen, as he usually did, while the owner of the apartment at that side of the wall went to click some buttons on his coffee machine. 

The apartment wasn't too big, just something made for only one person to live in, or two at most; but the aspect had always been quite nice and interesting. 

It was a loft style house with naked, clean black steel beams and some matching stairs that lead to a cantilever, where he had placed his bedroom. The walls were made of facing brick and the floors were dark wood, but the entire place had details here and there that gave everything a cohesive atmosphere with splashes of color, specially red, with framed drawings on the walls, bookshelves with books and art magazines… design books... Sicheng had given up asking what the meanings or shapes of some things were some time ago. 

Summarizing, it was a modern flat owned by a young, freelance graphic designer in his twenties with a tendency to be intriguing. 

"What's up with you?" asked Sicheng. 

"Why you asking?"

"Because you have been missing for almost two weeks and then you came back to hibernate? And honestly... you don't look so fine" 

Ten chuckled, but there was something bitter nipping on the tone. 

He sat with Sicheng at the table, letting the smoky mug of coffee in front of him and having an extra long sip from his. 

“So I don’t look so fine… What can a man say to that? Take me in your arms”

“Save your irony for someone else” said Sicheng, biting back. Somehow, through the years, he had learned how to keep down those sporadic highs of cynicism that Ten weaponized to shield himself from harm. He was brave, giddy and optimistic, but sometimes he was like those touch-me-not plants that close with the slightest sign of danger. “Your aspect right now… I don’t know, but it worries me. Where have you been?”

Ten sighed and Sicheng mentally gave himself a clap in the back because he knew the boy was not as fine as he would like to paint it to be. Yet, he didn’t stop worrying for the blonde as he hid his face on his hands, kneading his forehead as he gathered the energy that he needed to speak. 

“I met someone a couple weeks ago” Sicheng tilted his head and leaned on his palm, curious with the answer. He didn’t expect such an answer, he was thinking more of him being stuck with work or feeling low with motivation.

"Oh…" he cleared his throat a little, awkwardly almost. "And?" 

"He is… he is really mind-blowing for me. I mean, to me, in my opinion, he is an awesome person...”

“Have you spent the entire week with him?” 

“In a nutshell, yes” 

"In his house?"

"Yeah"

"In his…"

"Bed” completed Ten, anticipating the question. “Yeah, and fuck, what a mistake. I mean, no, it was fucking good, he..."

There was so much going on in his head as he spoke that he suddenly felt that awful gush of affliction ascending in his throat until he had nothing else to do but spit it in the form of a choked wail. 

Now that knocked Sicheng over, eyes widening in front of the vision of his friend crumbling.

Is not like he believed that Ten couldn’t cry, he had seen him cry before, during movie night, when they watched those emotional animation movies like Your Name. Even if he got sulky after and pretended he didn’t sob. But another thing was to break down in front of him like that and without deeping in his own explanation.

The tears burst like a waterfall, spilling down his face, drawing glittery paths down his cheeks. 

He heard himself, hiccupping like a recently born cub, but there was static in his head, the side effect of held back stress and fear exploding and turning liquid. 

“Ten?”

“Wow, look at me. What’s wrong with me?” he said with a painful giggle as he tried to wipe the salty drops hangin on his chin and kissing his cheeks with the cuff of the sweatshirt. “For fuck's sake…"

"I thought you said it was good, what's wrong?"

"It was good, it was amazing, okay? I just met him by chance and, as I spent more time with him, I started seeing him more cosy, sweet and… appealing and… I don't know” 

“Hey, Ten, it’s okay… you have a crush, there’s nothing wrong with that, I would even say that's the usual for people in our age”

“There is a problem! I started falling for him like an idiot and he doesn’t like me back”

“Come on, it can’t be that bad” said Sicheng, trying to cheer him up as well as he could. He wasn’t the best at giving advice, especially love advice, all their friends knew about that, but Ten had helped him so many times fixing up his mental breakdowns about work, confidence and practically everything that could happen. He would have done anything to try to comfort him. “The guy opened his home to you for almost two damn weeks, it’s obvious he has some feelings going on too”

“It wasn’t like that” tried to explain the blonde. 

Well, it wasn’t like he could tell his friend the reason behind that untold pact of safeguarding between him and Taeyong, it would go over his head because, for him, Ten was just his neighbor and friend, the one with the smug, cheerful smile that designed illustrations and layouts for a living, not the foxy creature that tricked people into self-destruction. 

And yeah, Taeyong had told him to show off and Ten didn’t need a trace of magic to get the wolf all hot and moany. They had tangled up with each other for a night that felt more than amazing, surprising Ten for how engaged and responsive they both have been, just out of themselves. A guilty pleasure, criminally easy to commit to it, wholeheartedly sharing every touch with him and enjoying himself way too far with the kisses he had given him, so elaborate and slow. 

The only thought threw him back to the recent memory of Taeyong, breath laboured, cheeks pink and white hair tangled as he sweetly asked Ten to do more. 

But all of that had broken in pieces when the wolf saw the mess he had created. He just knew he'd done something pretty gross when Taeyong looked at him with disappointment, because there wasn’t anything that could turn his big black orbs into sad sparkles if it wasn’t gross. 

He wanted to be strong and nonchalant but he couldn’t be once he was dragged into the torrent of guilt and his mask fell off. Maybe he was more of a human than ever before, riddled with feelings and the knowledge that he couldn’t undo it. 

“What was it, then?”

“I… I accidentally… fucked up something he really appreciated and can’t be replaced, so we argued and he told me to leave”

“Oh, Ten… I am sorry. But he might be hurt, just that. I don’t think it’s bad enough to spoil all of it. I have seen a lot of people run back to you even when you give the cold shoulder”

"He is not like other people"

Sicheng looked at him incredulous, as it sounded like a deeper kind of feeling than he was thinking at first. "Whoa, Ten…"

“Sicheng” he murmured, all drained from his energy. He could feel the air pressure sit on him too heavily. “I messed up. I’m fucking dumb, he doesn’t want to see me anymore. It took me the fucking blow to open my eyes and see I want to say he things I couldn't say before”

"You are not dumb, Ten… just a master of bottling up. And yeah, that's not the smartest part of you but it's… just that, a part. It doesn't ruin your entire self"

“I feel like it does. I feel… sad and tired”

“Gosh…” 

"Why do people like romance? It feels awful" 

Sicheng exhaled, laughing a bit but watching his friend with pity. 

There weren't a lot of things that looked like they could be calming for the older one at that moment, so he stood up and grabbed one of his last resources, wrapping his arms around him in a hug, gentle and with still space to breath, but actually warm. 

Ten was somewhat grateful to get that gesture, it eased the touch-deprived sensation knotting in the bottom of his stomach, sighing with a bit more of serenity. 

“You smell like instant ramen" murmured Sicheng close to him. “It’s terrible”

"Fuck you"

"I have been there and it’s a fat mistake, I swear. Your tummy will end up revealing and you’ll have an upset stomach and cramps. You need something that has been cooked for real, instant food makes it worse if you want to heal. Let’s order take out better ” 

“I’m glad that you didn’t say you’ll be cooking, I don’t want my kitchen burnt today”

Sicheng played the offended role, hitting Ten on his shoulder with a playful punch that sent the smaller one to dramatize the pain as well, smiling a bit more. Although he was doing it low-key and visibly more tired than he used to be, Sicheng was more satisfied with his friend thinking about anything else that wasn’t that boy who had been keeping him up at night. 

In fact, Ten flopped on his messy couch and started noticing the excess of weight over him while his neighbour took out his phone and scrolled down in the menu of the delivery app scanning the restaurants offering their services. 

“What do you wanna eat?” 

“Dunno. Mapo tofu” 

He rolled his eyes for those strange tastes of his, but put it on the cart anyways because he was trying to be nice with him. He could add a nice set of hot pot for himself anyways.

"Whatever" 

Ten was switching on the TV so there was something more lively sounding in the room while they waited with their low gas conversation. 

The slumber had almost taken him down when the news kicked in with an announcement about the ‘actions taking part in Ahopsan Forest’.

He opened his eyes lazily to stare dully at the screen, playing some images of the green surroundings of the woods as the reporter spoke with a monotonous voice-over explaining the special survival rate of the city’s pinnacle of nature due to the action of being closed to the public for years. However, it seemed like the city council had recently taken over the legal possession of the lands and had jumped to a series of proposals to decide what to do with it because, according to an anonymous citizen associated with associations performing high activity in forested areas, the woodlands were the living place of numerous wild species of animals that had been slowly coming down and pacing freely among neighbours, menacing the wellbeing of citizens. 

Ten was about to retort, with thick sarcasm, out loud, saying that Jaehyun didn’t even let him show him the wild part of him, but he bit his tongue because of his friend distractedly watching the news with him from the armrest. 

The news broadcast switched the images to the outward zone, then, showing the labours of woodcutters as they kept tearing trees down. It looked worse than last time he saw it himself if possible. 

According to the reporter that was speaking in front of the image of trucks, the process of installing new monetized visit areas had started already, and the wood that the authorities were collecting would be destined to the printing industry to make paper for newspapers and other stationary goods. 

He was getting sick of listening to all that bullshit as it went on and the images turned into a virtual 3D plan of how the facilities would look. It was some kind of resort with several floors of wood and steel raising on an extension of earth with low bushes and some chopped trees to give a fake impression of naturalness. It was made for tourists to go and do their thing while people who worked there took care of them, not because they wanted to spend the time in the forest. 

The ending of the report was about the protests that all of these changes were sparking, putting several environmentalist organizations against the town's senior executives as they were trying to paralyze the actions by legal means and concentrations. 

"Winwin" called Ten when the reporter moved to another announcement, making his friend jump on his seat. He was almost sure that Ten had passed out half an hour ago.

"Uh?"

"Let's go tomorrow, to the local council"

"For what?"

"I wanna sign the petitions" 

"Really?" Asked the younger one paying attention to the TV for a second. "I didn't know you were an ecologist. It doesn't surprise me at all, tho" 

"I'm interested in it, we should call the boys and ask if they want to come too. More signs"

"Alright, if it makes you feel better, we can text them. You should leave this house, anyways, everyone has been worrying about you because you weren't replying to anyone"

"Tell them I'm sorry, my new phone is still charging" 

"I have tell them that you are fine"

"A bit far-fetched, maybe" he said, laughing bitterly. "But thank you"

"They say you have to spill the tea, and that they will come tomorrow and go to the center."

"Let's go out for drinks too, tell them" 

"Calm down a little" he said mockingly. "You were crying a few minutes ago"

"That's why. I feel stupid when I cry and I honestly don’t want my mind to remind me all the time that I have fucked up. I am sick"

The younger one frowned a little but Ten didn't want to see it, closing his eyes again until the delivery decided to show up on his door with dinner, ignoring if Sicheng had typed that last words of his or not, because it didn't matter. 

It didn't matter whether he had the TV on or off… the only thing left for him to do was detaching his brain from himself for a while, so getting shitfaced was becoming his next predominant impulse. 

Because Taeyong was everywhere. 

Everywhere but the place he wanted him to be at.


	9. Don’t tell me off

The passing of days had left Sicheng and Hendery out of the game, as they were tired of being dragged by Ten to the most scandalously late-hour plans of Busan for an entire week since he had arrived, and Yangyang was still too young to be allowed in those places without a fake ID.

It didn’t stop him from doing it by himself, anyways, because the option of staying home had been discharged as it had slowly become his worst prison. 

He had trimmed his hair, so his hoop earrings were shining as they hung under the tips. He was there in his whole set of wrecking clothes, black pants adhering to his thighs like his own skin, pink sheer shirt hanging and opening over his chest with the accent of the pendants tangling with each other from dancing in the sea of bodies inside that club. Whichever it was. 

If he stopped even for a fraction of a second, his mind may turn to a dwell and his face would end up wet with tears.

The smoke twisted in its artistic way, forming curls in the dark of the club, but he honestly could compete with the luxury of its waves, because he was also something out of the comprehension of lookers, illuminated only by the speckles of light flickering with their colorful glow to the rhythm, full of sweat, and not all his, reflected its highlights. 

He looked at the girl in front of him. 

A gorgeous face with a smudged glittery makeup staining on her cheeks and messy black hair with bangs, celebrating something as an excuse to party like an animal. She had such a low-cut line on her dress that Ten was honestly admiring the skill she was having to dance without making it break her trust to keep her tidy. 

The harsh scent of an over sweetened substance was filling the ambience and making him more dizzy and more despreocupated, but he still knew that she was certainly too close to him, for the smell of her humanity shining underneath the cloud of main aroma. 

He knew that, in case he wanted, he wouldn’t struggle to make her lose the balance to fall right in his arms, with a couple of gestures and the convenient glance, but what was the point?

As her tiny hand grabbed the pink sheer of his shirt with a smile, Ten noticed how close they seemed to be, suddenly, but she inched a bit more to make herself be heard upon the music, at least loud enough for Ten to get a grip of her catchphrase. 

“How is it possible to look so pretty in the middle of this fucking mess?” 

He chuckled. 

Ten was used to be called pretty, in fact he shared the opinion. Well, is not that he was too vain, but he liked his face because he had to love himself as he was. So he believed that it was, better said, a true fact that he was pretty. However, being complimented was a thing that had him almost tired, and yet, he never thought he would have that need to praise someone else so hard. 

Not her, no. 

Taeyong. 

He had full lips with a delicious cherry color, Ten just wanted to eat him up. 

And she didn’t. 

She was beautiful, as a matter of fact, but he couldn't push through the sentiment in the back of his mind telling him no one finds an acorn appealing after a cherry. 

His expression surely changed in the stroke of a pen. He had stopped, he had let it fill his mind again… and there was the thought of how he couldn't keep kissing strangers, not after Taeyong. 

And yeah, he totally had tried. 

The first one was a very ironic strike of luck that presented in the form of Jung Jaehyun entering in the same stupid club as him. 

Ten didn't even stop to indulge him one bit, he just approached him with everything he had in his arsenal to make him see fucking stars threaded in his every move but, of course, he left after one dance and hoped for the stupid hunter to not to get rid of the frustration in months of seeking for a solution. He'd better be dreaming with him every night in the next decade until he cried, he didn't deserve less.

Even Sicheng had commented, with a dimb blush, on the extreme energy Ten had put in one dance to then leave 'the poor devil' by himself but Ten just shrugged and replied that no devil had his sympathy. 

The second one wasn't less of a disaster, overall, and Ten thought that maybe it was because he wasn’t too adequate, that out of eagerness he had rushed to pick, but the third one was just a blur in his mind as well that, all the time, had been making Ten think life wasn’t the same anymore. 

He stopped there because he could see how he would end up pretending everyone was the wolf. 

How delusional and pathetic that would be? He wasn’t so drunk to pretend that it was a good idea. 

The nausea swirled in his stomach. Come on, he had been doing better, he had been trying to think less about it. But then again, if he was in a state where he could swear he was fine but he wasn’t even able to stand straight on his feet without tumbling in that easily inebriated form of a human body, how could he even make progress.

He leaned closer to the pretty girl, almost mimicking her gesture as he approached her ear too. He modulated his voice to sound gentle, maybe even a little bit spicy to not let her cold down as fast as it might. 

“I am sorry, baby, as sad as it may seem, I have someone else” 

To say there was someone else in his life was way too optimistic, and blatantly a lie when it echoed in his brain and the amber liquid he had been using to put himself to soak started burning down and leaving his mind free and his body wasted. 

The girl seemed to inch a bit closer with a tint of deception in the motion of his lashes, but Ten told himself to walk away from her whilst he still had a passion triggering look and some dignity to stand for himself, leaving the club and hitting the chilly air of the night. 

That didn’t help him with the feeling of loneliness, in a cold night people were more likely to be drawn closer to one another and warm up with the natural temperature within their hearts. 

That was pure animal instinct. 

It was like a sweet and slow death to him, imagining he had only grazed the sky with the tips of his fingers and could have deeped in, have a handful, get all Taeyong without restrains, if he only wasn’t so stupid for one time. The boy that had eyes like shiny ebony and a heart of pure gold, that evaporated all of Ten’s bad habits, for tiny they were, to let him move in the way the wolf did, benevolent and not like an immature teenager without a knowledge of attachment. 

Ten wouldn’t say he hadn’t thought about turning back to the forest, maybe fumble around until he found the way back to the cabin guided by some kind of fate or lack of more paths to keep going around in circles. He did contemplate the possibility of going back to him and say he was sorry once again until Taeyong lifted his eyebrows like he used to do, all compassionate for him, but he didn’t even thought he had earned it. 

Maybe they really were an odd pair, incompatible. 

He would have liked to believe that to ease his mind, but the way their breaths had mingled that night couldn't lie, nor the perfect match they created when they shared a bed or had breakfast together, or played with the cold water of the pond.

If they were that good of a balance, Taeyong had to forgive him. He would be feeling it too, missing him more as day passed. 

In his eyes when he looked at him, Ten could see that the wolf wasn’t meant to be so lonely, it was just that he had a very big responsibility on his back during a time of decline for empathy. 

Ten couldn't be the only one that had gone astray, knowing that he was stooping so low as he was flopping on the staircase of his block of apartments sitting against the wall and trying to remember where did he put his keys, night so dark it had a tone of recrimination, reminding him that he had kept being a wreck in spite of everything. 

But, shit, he also had his dignity. He had done nothing that bad. No, maybe toying with annoying people wasn’t the best way to solve problems in this world, but he wasn’t the one destroying the forest in his way, it was Jaehyun, it was the city council, it was the corrupted souls that operated with a selfish brain and ended up harming their entire system as if they wouldn’t go down with it too. 

Taeyong could have just done a little bit of his part and say he was sorry, show up for Ten instead of the other way around, no? He had blamed him like it was obvious it was his fault to bring those trucks full of loggers to the forest, and it was stupid because a thought so rotten would have totally passed over his blonde head. 

He wasn’t really searching for his keys, just sat on the floor with his eyes lost in space trying to avoid going inside the apartment that had always looked like his home but was cold now. 

“Ten?” He looked up from his spot on the floor, recognizing Hendery’s voice and the unruly locks of straight brunette long hair falling on his face, like a gamerboy that still has to grow up a little. It was an intempestive hour to leave Sicheng’s house but who was Ten to say so himself. “Are you alright?” 

“I'm…” he squeezed his eyes until they formed thin lines, the youngest figured that he was trying to guess who he was “...fine”

“Okaaay…” He said making the word long due to his very poor conviction about his friend's honesty. He was probably more drunk than Hendery thought at first, so he tried to pull by his arm to get him on his feet. “Get up, you're going to catch a cold”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. My house is colder” 

The brunette crunched down and sat by his side on the stairs, palm falling over Ten’s hand, armed with the expression of compassion he would have liked to see from someone else. 

He felt bad for it, he was only tipsy, he could see enough sense to know that Hendery was worrying for him, and he didn’t like that so much.

“What are you doing here, Ten?” 

“Winwin and you don’t speak while you guys play League of Legends?” he said, holding a little bit longer on humor, then sighing and leaning against the wall with his head back. 

Hendery gave him a pat on his knee. 

“I was trying to be discreet, dude, but okay. Deep crush, uh?” 

“I guess. Otherwise I won’t be making this mess of myself”

“It’s not as weird as you think” murmured the brunette, tenderly.

“You’re gonna have to convince me of that”

"I'll do it, then"

"How?"

“You are probably thinking right now that there’s no one as dumb as yourself, that no one gets their heart to beat that hard for someone, but people go through this shit sometimes in their life”

“Do they?

“Yeah. And boy, it was almost weirder when I thought you’d remind your whole life like the invictus seducer you are”

“Don’t speak like I eat people’s hearts as only diet” he warned. It wasn’t like he would like to hear that outdated cliché from human legends once more, not specially at that time, regardless of Hendery knowing his true nature or not. 

“You know I know that’s not it, but you have never been… this into someone. What even went wrong, tho?”

“I don’t know how to explain… I just did something that clashed a lot with his way of seeing things. I guess I fucked it up big time. Now I feel like death, realizing that maybe I behaved like a real asshole”

“C’mon, that’s not as bad as it feels like at first. Plenty of relationships start like that, on-and-off, really. Remember me and Dejun? We had it going for how long? Almost a year until it settled down. People know each other gradually, is not as if you could know he would feel hurt by the art of magic”

“What if he doesn’t want to know more of me after that?” he closed his fist so hard he felt the sharpness of his pointy nails on his palm. He refused to cry again like a lost cub without his mother, even when his eyes stung, he had to take it like someone mature. “I’m really scared to go back at him" he finally confessed.

"Why?"

"Because I know he was right with some of the things he said. Even if he had not the right to be that mad and was mistaken too, even if he had to apologize, I know I did something wrong and… I can't undo it. I know I have emotional issues that I have to figure out, it’s just that… I hoped I could figure them out with someone like him to support me, and now that I’ve found that out, I’m terrified of fronting him and be told it’s totally over” 

"You really like him, don't you?" Murmured Hendery, almost scared to ask, but Ten… he closed his eyes and sighed, letting his head fall back against the wall to rest.

"I fucking do" he sighed "And it scares me. I am not ready to say goodbye to him. One only needs to look at me to see it"

"People are people after all. We get mad sometimes, but we have to face our flaws. You with yours and him with his. You guys are not some kind of saints or anything, I know you, you are not” He joked, trying to rip a giggle out of his friend and being content with the faint smile, surging from the certain irony in the conversation. “Arguments are fine if they don't cross the line of cruelty. Did he?”

“No. I don’t think he is even capable of being cruel” he said, and that time he chuckled for real, almost shyly with his face getting shielded by his bangs brushing over it as he gave a quick glance to the floor. 

“Then you can’t ditch a relationship with anyone, friend or something more, at the first sight of drama. Affective responsibility is a thing, dude, and I know you have some bumpy relationship with that, but let me tell you something: I have been friends with you for years, I know you are not an absolute dead loss at it. I have seen how you take care of each one of us whenever we need" 

"He said he wanted me to go"

"He was hurt and his head was hot. In times like that you need space, you know that. I don't think he meant forever" 

“Shit… I don't know, I think I need some sleep” he said, rubbing his eye and standing up slowly, just in case his stomach wanted to flip and give him a disgusting need of throwing up, but it was unlikely, since he had come down from the high some hours ago. 

“You probably should, it’s past three in the morning” 

“I’m a… a nocturnal creature” he said, but only he caught the bitter stroke of humor, waving goodbye to his friend and going up to his floor, fidgeting with the keys that had been all the time in the pocket of his dark pants. 

The loft was, indeed, colder than he had wanted it to be, yet he had a tiny sparkle of hope that it would warm up. 

Maybe not that night, but if his heart had enough courage to try it, maybe soon. 

He kicked out his shoes before stepping onto the wooden floor, catching the cushion that had been thrown on the floor carelessly in his way to launch it onto the couch again. Well, he knew for sure that he would use the next morning to tidy the dorm a bit. He wasn’t too messy, and the week of struggle hadn’t been as bad as some of his friends, like Xuxi, could make it be in terms of order, but there were things out of place and obviously neglected. 

Experts said that a clean living space helps putting your head in order. He hoped they were right. 

There was some deafening alarm going off far, in the guts of the city, but it was so strident that Ten’s sensitive hearing was making him shake from head to toe, brain in a sensitive state after the alcohol and all of the already loud music he had been under. 

He skipped towards the window swiftly to close it before climbing the stairs to his bedroom, so with luck the noise would stop. 

The light was too warm outside, it glowed with an orangey tone as he approached, making him doubt if it was really only 3am. 

He'd had wished he had been right.

The air smelt like charcoal, the sky behind the profile of buildings had turned in a strange degradation of red and grey colors ascending with slow wisp of smoke towards the moon. The siren was still ringing like a call, drowning the sound of Ten's nails digging in the wooden frame of the window with his bulging eyes lost in the horizon. 

His heart palpitated so hard that he thought it was going to stop after that. 

Nothing burnt better than a holy forest infected by ignorance. 

He turned over the trace of his steps into his house, running down the stairs into the cold night again, but this time his body only felt adrenaline and fear pumping through his veins as another firetruck drove past him with the sirens on. 

Suddenly there wasn't pride, not fear of rejection anymore, just an horrific feeling of devastation extending in his chest, totally terrified to even think about leaving Taeyong alone in the middle of a fire. 

He must be so sad and scared that Ten's heart broke harder than when he bade him a farewell. 

His whole body activated like the crack of a whip as he started running, coming back to his senses. 

And his senses were devastatingly angry. 

What could run faster? A human or a fox with an injured leg? The fox for sure. 

He would take the last traces of lasting pain for the cause, jumping graciously and being so hasty that his body almost appeared like a spark of a will-o'-the-wisp in the middle of the street as it changed in the air and landed steadily and fluent with the long and small shape of a white fox, red marks decorating the fur around his eyes and under his ears like in a puzzle of designs. 

If Jaehyun was worried about watching animals run free in the streets of Busan he should have known he wasn’t doing any better to avoid that, because an animal was free and sprinting over pavement directly into the making of amends. 

Taeyong had said that dokkaebi found their way inside the forest better than humans, and he really hoped it was true this time. 

He didn’t even know what his plan was, he wasn’t thinking he could put down a wildland fire just like that, perform a miracle snapping his fingers, he wasn’t going after that, he just wanted to… be there. Wrap his arms around that boy to tell him everything would turn out okay even if it clearly wasn’t the current freaking case, and that… however many levels of war that town was going to give them, he would follow him on it. Loneliness didn’t suit him well. None of them. 

He wasn’t aware of how many kilometers were between his house’s block and Ahopsan Forest, his body was exhausted when he started running up the stone stairs, almost hidden among bushes, that lead to the wide columns that signified the entrance of the depths of the ancient forest. Then the trees started appearing at each of his sides, pavement becoming earth, but for his mind it has been only the blink of an eye. 

In the barren humans were creating at the outer zone, there were men running here and there, with buckets of water and pieces of clothing, trying to put down the flames until all the firetrucks had arrived. It was enough of a mess to ignore Ten’s agile presence as he hopped over the trunks piling on the trucks’ backs, reaching a higher place to observe from the top, trying to spot Taeyong. 

Not seeing him among the people that tried to help extinguishing the fire caused him to worry even more, if possible. Ten was sure that Taeyong would have been the first person in the world to take in an insane job like that. What if he was hurt, if a tree had knocked him over, if he had gotten burnt? Ten would never forgive mankind, nor himself for not being quicker. 

He jumped to the ground again, running towards the depth of the forest, were trees were thicker, and so were flames in consequence, as they tried to expand inside the woods from the barren were they have originated by the stupid fatal mistake of some logger and their gasoline powered saws. 

If the price was walking through the walls of fire he may be up to it, he would look through the woods and run towards the cabin if that's what it would take. But then the icy, glossy shine of a silver-gray fur, got caught in the corner of his eye, making him brake on his tracks. 

It was a shape he hadn’t seen before, the sound of paws over crisp leaves on the floor a music that his ears hadn’t met before, but he still knew him. 

He breathed slowly just a second to get the full picture of the wolf that had stopped a bunch of meters away to stare at him too. It was really big, and Ten couldn’t discern if it was just him looking at him from a lower point or if the animal was really bigger than a person. However, his eyes were a little bit sad, docile and a little bit shy, just like everyday. 

The two animals started running in opposite directions and against each other again, which for any human would seem like they got into a fight or were trying to hunt, but it was none, and suddenly Ten tripped all over himself and his shapeshifting skill, tangling in the air and making his very human chest bump on Taeyong’s chest like a knot. 

“Ten!” he said, still coming out from the wolfish howling sound of his throat.

The younger one had his eyes stinging from the smoke and the sentiments flooding him, but he pushed Taeyong, lacing their fingers together and tugging as he ran again under the pattern of leaves catching in fire, opposite to the direction Taeyong's run presented just seconds prior.

“What are you even doing running straight to the fire!? Let’s go!” 

“No, no, no! The forest is in danger, we can’t leave!” 

“We are not, but you can’t just… don’t risk your life for this all by yourself. I know, you are not used to having people around to help you or anything but this time you have to let me help because I know you, and I know you had been isolated for so long that you forget you can’t help anyone if you are no longer here!” 

Taeyong’s eyes were dripping with tears foreign to the awareness of the blonde running inside the forest, faster than the fire, eluding trees and slipping through the spaces as he guided Taeyong for a way he didn’t know his brain had memorized. 

He sobbed, free hand clutching at his white shirt that was collecting dark spots from ashes. 

His minutes of stirring feelings were broken apart by the words of the fox and the sudden feeling of calm sent all his senses down on him at the same time becoming tears. 

The life of the forest was crumbling on his fingertips as they ran. 

“Ten, I need a miracle”

He heard the air become silent for a second, like an unrealistic scene with a different kind of magic, warm spreading from the luminous eyes of his companion when he angled his head back to see him. 

He had that flash between fantasy and reality, a quick view of Ten’s eyes with slit pupils and red lines drawn around them like a mask of fresh paint. 

The sky broke with a loud thud, similar to a thunder, and so the rain that had been stopped for days started pouring again. First some droplets, and then, angrily like a mantle of water.

Ten kept on moving, leaving everything behind but the person he had attached to his hand.

The last strides he gave conducted Taeyong into the pond’s clearing where they had been once before, and then into the water trying to run from the fire and the smoke in the distance. 

His strength was giving up, he had been running like a soul out of hell for god knows how long, and he collapsed, falling back for a second on the uncommonly clear water as his body came to meet an easier temperature. 

Taeyong tripped a little bit over the stone of the bottom too, the rush of their run making him want to go limp as he let his knees give up as his body dove in the middle of the lagoon. 

Underwater, the freedom was a relief, like in a different world where nothing was wrong. He could only hear the soothing tap of raindrops falling onto the surface, directly from the sky without trees getting in the way, becoming one with the big blue, meeting with the air bubbles that rose from his face before emerging again. 

He met with more drops, but he couldn’t feel where they were landing, nor tell them apart from the water streaming down from his hair. He looked up, closing his eyes and taking a breath in, trying to discern their touch on his face, and the taste as they slipped over his lips and down his chin, each fragment part of a divine request. 

“You really are a lucky charm” he mumbled, opening his eyes to see the gray sky that had never seemed so clear for him. 

And then, his glare fell on the fox, once and for all in the quiet calm of untamed nature. 

They were half submerged in the pond. 

Ten was soaking wet, his hair had become one with his face only with a couple of locks pulled back in an untidy way to clear the block in his sight. For Taeyong, he looked like a vision of his own madness. All those trees were on fire, the air thick with hot swirling mist smelt like ashes and the cold rain was pouring onto the pond as if any possible natural phenomenon was going on at the same time, throwing up a white vape that made it hard to see through, and still then, in the middle of that chaos his heart was pounding, at the edge of collapse.

Because he was ravishing. 

He was moving towards him with his face fully painted on worry, breathing and gasping to reach out for him. 

He hadn't arrived yet when Taeyong had already opened his arms and embraced him, breathing in the deep perfume of his skin no matter how overcharged with ashes the air was. 

His breath was shaking his chest under his own, up and down as he clutched him closer, but his eyes searched for his face in the middle of their hug. 

Taeyong met his pupils just as avidly. 

"What's this between us?" breathed out the youngest, tongue giving up so that the words that tormented him for weeks could roll out. 

Taeyong’s heart did a stronger heartbeat and then seemed to freeze. He hated to see the broken expression on his eyes, knowing that it was him who had painted it there. It was devastating, the fact that he was so worried because of his surroundings that he had put all the blame on Ten to feel lighter and be able to carry on with his own problem. 

“How can you be putting me above all right now? I kicked you out of here at the drop of a hat. I can’t blame you if you are mad at me, I just want to say-”

“I’m not mad” he said, fast. “That’s not what I meant. What is this between you and me? What is it? I feel like my chest is about to fly into pieces”

The real meaning of his sentence hit him when their eyes met in the silence too and he submerged on them, leaving his previous shattered focus aside to understand the kind of tender, nervous energy dancing on his orbs. So different from the first time he looked into them and started his slow descent to insanity, soft as no person could be. 

The rhythm marked by the drops on the water accompanied the caress of his hand traveling up to his collarbones, taking the small pearl between two fingers with endearing care.

He bit down to his lip, reminding himself that the courage that took him to speak to Ten, sometimes, was worthy because of the results. 

"What kind of… what kind of thing makes if feel like it's going to collapse?"

“I feel... like I lack something when you are not around, like I can't get it back”

“For real?”

"Hmm" hummed Ten not knowing better of how to express himself. "And I may know the reason behind it"

“Hell, I never thought I would steal your heart” he said, in a breath that the fox could perfectly trace falling upon him, for they were leaning closer and their lips were so close to touching that his eyes were feeling heavy and only half open. “Probably neither did you” 

None of them couldn't breath anymore. 

Ten's lips burned over his, but they were softer than a petal in the way they moved, like tasting the new flavor to take notes of sense memory, taking care of giving Taeyong something more than an apology. 

He had kissed before. Ten had given many kisses before, so why did it feel so new? 

His fingers knotted in the grayish lock of his hair, clutching Taeyong closer and taking his thoughts away. Their clothes were soaked and sticking to them, breaking their movements into clumsy intents, yet it didn't matter for Taeyong whilst he slipped his hands over his shoulders and wrapped his arms around his neck. He parted his lips and gave in and gave up to breath the same exhale that Ten was giving him. 

When he pulled back, there was the vision of him, eyes half open and lips parted, exhaling a small white cloud of hot air. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen, with Ten's eyes reflecting drunk sentiments of pure endearment.

He could see why anyone would crave him and want to have him, and he didn't need magic to fall. He was all the magic in the world by himself. 

"I'm sorry" muttered Ten, his voice so choked up that Taeyong wondered if it was because of the smoke or because his red eyes seemed to be holding back tears. He had his forehead resting on his, and he genuinely looked anxious "I made you upset and I am very sorry, I am really bad at these things, and uncovering my feelings? It scares me to death. But, Taeyong, really, I needed to say it in order for my head to not blow up. I'm head over heels, I think so. And I know this is probably not a good moment and that I should have put my shit together earlier, but I just didn't know how."

"I don't think it's a bad moment, baby" he answered with the tilt of his voice leaning on sweetness at the name, flipping it around from the way the younger always used. "Do you think there's a better way than walking in a fire for me, showing up during this mess, to show me that you are being real and care about me?" 

"I don't know, I-" his face buried on his palm, head hurting and, at the same time, getting his pulse to accelerate. "I wasn't thinking about confessing tonight"

"Well, I am glad that you did, 'cus I am the same, I feel the same” He said, and Ten really thought the wolf could hear his erratic pulse if he put in a little bit of effort because his ears were totally catching the sound. “But I think, deep down, you already knew that''

Ten smiled a little bit, tenderly, with the light spreading on his pupils. 

"You blush so hard when I call you baby" His arms opened to give Taeyong space as he wrapped around his body again, with a cute and almost shy laughter shaking his chest. It got to be contagious and fill Ten with that soft giggle too. 

“You enjoy that, don’t you?” 

“You look cute when you do it” just as a proof of his point, he did flush with the compliment quickly, making Ten laugh more. “You see? The little pup with his rosie cheeks. Shit, I have missed you”

“Really?” Taeyong asked, genuinely surprised. 

“Hmm” Ten nodded, a bit bashful. “I wasn’t at my best, I have to say it”

“Neither was I” 

Ten blinked rapidly. 

It didn’t make him feel good that Taeyong had been dead like a junky just like him, he knew the awful it felt. But something made him… simmer down. 

“You weren’t?”

Taeyong chuckled as he shook his head a bit.

“No, baby. I mean… I have been low on gas all these days. I didn’t feel good about how we parted from each other. I couldn’t stop thinking I was unfair and I didn't like to see myself like that, not to say how sick I felt when I realized I hurt you, I just… I don't like to be alone, especially when I'm sad, but the only one I wanted was the one I brushed off… I missed you in my house.” Ten smiled at him tenderly. He was living the dream of his past nights. “I wish I could take you back but I think… probably the cabin is just a big pile of ashes right now”

He swallowed the urge to keep sobbing as he thought of his home, whipping his tears away with his hands. 

“Hey, don’t cry, come one” Tried out Ten, brushing the hair on the back of his hair between his fingers. “Maybe it’s still there and only needs some fixes, okay? But it’s dangerous to stick around here with all this smoke and susceptible humans running around…”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“I do have a house too, baby” 

Taeyong gave him a questioning stare, sending him into a little scrunch.

“Are you inviting me over?” 

Ten pursed his lips, but the smile didn’t take long to invade his expression just by itself. 

“You must be tired and cold, the sky is falling… the earth is burning… it’s the least I could do”


	10. Don’t sleep at night

He smelled so good, as always. Taeyong couldn’t figure out how he was able to smell like perfume all day long, he guessed it was part of the magic essence within him, but he inhaled the cloud of scent deeply when he moved and lazily passed his arm over his body, pulling him a bit closer to his chest.

He turned around on the bed where they were laying and faced him, leaving the minimalist digital clock that marked almost midday from the night table, at his back. 

The bed in Ten’s apartment was quite comfortable and spacious, just as warm as his could be, holding their bodies and protecting them under the blankets of that modern cut house. 

It was really charming for Taeyong, actually. The shapes were very different from his own place but, at the same time, close, with something that pulled him back to his roots. 

He embraced him too, surrounding his waist with his arms as the blonde made his heart quiver granting him a smile. 

He didn't talk just yet, a thing Taeyong pitied a little because he knew that his voice would have a lower color than the usual after sleeping, and he thought it was not a very common thing to hear Ten’s lower voice. However his eyes were vivid enough for the wolf to know he had been awake for a while. He just simply waited in bed instead of going to eat. 

The night had been quite outside of the norm for both the creatures. 

If Ten wasn’t used to bringing people outside his friend circle around to his very own apartment, the anxiety of crossing that line had dissipated pushed by the impelling impulse of making Taeyong feel a little bit better about that night. 

They arrived at the block looking like death, already on their two feet because they weren’t up for a hunting season at the intempestive hour it was. 

Ten lead the way up the stairs, hoping that Sicheng would sleep until lunch time once again so he didn't have to give him an explanation. 

They were still soaked and, in consequence, cold. Their clothes were dusty, their hair disheveled… Taeyong was genuinely tired, and it was far to say that a certain sadness had setted inside him due to everything that was going on with his house, his forest, his duty… everything was a heavy burden, and yet there was that sparkle of comfort that they both had been lacking for days. 

Taeyong, however, received the place in a more benevolent way than the fox may have supposed, finding it warm and familiar. Ten didn’t make it too hard, either, sending him to the shower gently so the knots of tension in his muscles could loosen up under the warm and clean torrent of water. He gave him fresh, comfortable pajamas and even fixed a small dinner for both of them to not go to bed with empty stomachs despite the deadly hours, sun almost rising in the horizon that was already turning orange. 

The stew had definitely warmed up Taeyong, helping him settle down and feel more sleepy to the point it was the blonde who practically carried him up the short flight of stairs to the bedroom.

He was, anyways, more than delighted with the fact of having Ten back and nursing him, softly helping him accommodating under the blankets before leaning back on the bed by his side, letting the wolf curl close to him and fall asleep. 

“How you feeling, pup?” he finally spoke, blessing Taeyong with the pitch. 

He kissed the older one, softly, with his breath fanning on his face and his hands on his back, caressing his milky skin under the shirt. 

Teyong's heart shook, going to return the kiss with a little bit more of his planned enthusiasm, pressing their mouths together and shoving his tongue in to play with his, feeling his own breath hitch. 

It was overloaded, emotional, almost melting into his skin as his hands tightened around him. 

Ten, who was taken with all his guards down, tensed under him, but wanted to keep the wolf as close as he was, so his arms soon responded to hold him tighter and, without brooding over it, his hands went to his ass and pushed the wolf against his body. 

The way it felt when their hips rolled together against each other made Taeyong mewl ever so softly. 

“Okay, I see you are good” muttered Ten, starting to feel the heat within his body, giggling together with Taeyong, who gave him that playful nervous laugh of his. 

It was impossible to stop to stare at the fox without getting thunderstruck. 

His hair was falling on his forehead all messy, his eyes still had a smuggled trace of eyeliner from whichever thing he had been doing the previous night before their encounter, and the collar of the shirt he slept on was open and falling to the side, revealing a wide space of his chest.

Maybe Taeyong was not so used to the new dynamics yet, it was normal, but he knew one thing and that was the way his body told him he wanted all of Ten. And because of that his lips landed directly on his neck and gave him a good open kiss that made the younger get goosebumps. 

“Oh my god” He said, feeling Taeyong’s actions send a wave of stimulation right to his crotch, and pushing from his butt again to get him closer. He breathed deep and tried to order his thoughts. “What are you doing? You are making me so damn… horny”

“And?” his mouth answered alone like if it had a self brain but he found that it made him feel even more giddy and excited, already imagining the consequences that teasing Ten would bring back. And besides, he sounded pretty powerful and velvety, he liked his own voice to sound like that.“ I love it, don’t you?”

“Well, I can’t say I don’t… but you are going to be in trouble…”

“Why? Did I do something special?" He almost sang, pushing the line for the fox, whose eyebrows knitted with a stern expression.

“Be a good pup, would you? Or should I put you on a leash?” The voice of mischief and arrogance he used left Taeyong sincerely impressed. Impressed with how aroused he could make him with the flick of his fingers. 

Hearing Ten become harsh hit him really different… and it almost embarrassed him, but with the sweet note of lust bubbling underneath. 

“I’ll take that”

Just as he predicted, Ten smirked. Their eyes met in the shape of a silent moment to question their prospect, broken by the youngest going back to his lips to kiss him, both lingering and deep, surprising Taeyong when he pulled back a little and licked his lip like testing the flavour they had to them. Then he kissed him again letting his tongue in to make him breathless, as their tastes mixed with a hot blow that made Taeyong melt. 

His hips grinded against him again when he felt the teeth of the youngest grazing on his bottom lip and his heart thumped faster, so keen to do it in the rough way. 

His enthusiasm pushed him to buckle his hips more fervently, erection rubbing on Ten’s hip with their legs tangled. 

Ten had already squarely bumped onto the way for success with Taeyong when they had been together in his cabin, so he held him down to stop him from moving his hips just a moment, almost making him protest. 

“A sucker for morning sex?” 

“I don’t know… it’s my first time, so I can’t really tell. Maybe you want to show me around”

“You are so cute...” said Ten caressing his chin with his free hand to make Taeyong look at him in the eye, as he brushed one of his fangs with his tongue. “But you have the nerve to be bold, no?”

His hold eased up, kissing him hard as they tangled even more, moving against him back and forth, over and over. 

The friction made Taeyong’s need spread over his body, along with a soft warm breeze against Ten’s unyielding mouth. He was  getting hotter by the moment, not really knowing how much longer he could stand it without whining and asking for something that satisfied him in a quicker way. 

He hummed quietly as Ten pulled his top over his head. 

The fox grabbed him and rolled into the bed, putting him under his body and pressing a gentle kiss on the tender skin of his neck. Taeyong angled his head back to give him more space and Ten giggled under his breath, obliging for a moment and giving him a glossy line over his throat with his tongue that made the hair of his nape bristle. 

The exciting, light sting on his flesh let him know that Ten was marking out his territory with the instinct of pervasiveness and a purple mark, but then he pulled back to look at him, eyes traveling slowly to his center core just like his hand.

"Show me"

Taeyong bit his lips, a little bit bashful even though Ten had already seen everything about him, but he grabbed the waistband of the pajama pants and tugged from one side anyways, remembering how he had told him he was the prettiest person alive, and wanting to see that in his eyes once more. 

He looked up at him, staring into his orbs and shuddering when the tilt of the material let his hardness free, slapping on his stomach already to the full-stand.

The click of Ten’s tongue was beyond amused, watching the state of his beautiful member all swollen and pink. “Oh my my, look how pretty and neglected that cock is”. 

He ran his hand along his bare thigh and then up to his nipple, pinching it with delicacy, as Taeyong released a murmur of pleasure and it became firm and sensitive between his digits, but that was just too little of contact for him at that moment.

His skin was so smooth. 

Ten looked him up and down, taking in the sight of his slim, toned, and beautiful physique. He used just one finger of his other hand to trace the shape of Taeyong’s shaft from the tip below, playing between teasy and sweet, the older one bucking his hips up, silently imploring some proper attention.

“You have been gone for a while” he replied, pushing the pout a little bit further than it would have been naturally, as he certainly knew he wanted Ten to keep speaking at him like that, making him furiously aroused in the same way he was when he praised him. “You made me like this”

Ten looked at him darkly, a smile curling his lip up despite the surprise, which made Taeyong smile for himself, knowing he was getting there. 

“I thought you knew how to manage yourself alone”

“I know how, but it’s not nearly as fun as it’s when you do it” 

“No, I bet it’s not” he said, holding him in his fingers with only a feather-like touch. It was quite hard and hot, and his mind couldn't get over the thought of Taeyong waiting for him and reserving himself to enjoy things together. That was a bit warped... and stimulating. "Then what should I do with you to redeem this poor state of yours?" 

His lips traced up from his shoulder to his neck, slowly biting down his flesh with his pointy teeth like Taeyong liked. He knew it was making him lose his mind, because his back was arching and his body stretching, exposing himself more to get all what he could get of it. 

"Oh, baby, tell me how you have missed my tongue" he teased, his voice muffled before keeping up with his job, tongue playing over his throat again, feeling the vibration going across Taeyong’s body with his tone. 

“Badly”

He touched Taeyong's plump lips again, brushing it with his thumb, but that time he made it pass through, the older allowing it in obediently. 

He licked it to coat it in the dampness of his cavity, his eyes shutting down with the perfect view of devotion and a slow humming sound. 

The look of him with his mouth latching on his finger was fascinating. His lips were pink, plump against his finger from all the kissing, like a flower blooming in the forest's bushes. Ten was looking at them in awe and thinking that he could put them to good use. 

The flashing mirage of Taeyong sucking his thick and fully throbbing cock crossed his mind in a snap, setting all his skin with goosebumps. 

As the older opened his eyes to throw an inviting look at him, he caught him slipping for a second and let go of his hand. 

“Can I eat you up, please?”

“With those lips and those manners, baby, you can do what you want on me” he declared, making Taeyong smile, all content. 

Not missing the chance, he got off the bed, down on his knees like once he had been at his own home. He positioned in front of Ten, who moved forward slightly, getting to the edge of the bed, handing him one of the pillows so he could use it for support without hurting his knees on the dark wood of the apartment’s floor.

Taeyong’s gentle hand fell on his knee, squeezing his tight with his fingers, lovingly, and parting his legs so that his bulge was right above his face.

Without waiting no more he pulled his pants down. 

As kept and collected as he wanted to portrait himself for Taeyong’s only pleasure, Ten was hectic inside, and he pulled away his shirt too, making it faster to get undressed. In less than a minute he was totally naked in front of him, and the fact that his erection had been freed from his pants was becoming already asphyxiating for him. 

Taeyong stopped to look at him and drink from the vision he was serving him with. 

He caught easily how Ten's lips quirked up on an alluring smirk, his eyes tracing the path of the youngest’s mouth all the way up to his eyes, and he suddenly felt like gulping down his own saliva.

“Calm down” cooed Ten, as his fingers traveled to his white hair carefully. Taeyong nodded emphatically, letting himself be caressed more. 

“I’m not nervous, just impatient”

"I know. You have no remedy, right? Show me that tongue, pup, so you don’t have to wait more" 

He did as told, and even more. His lips parted for him and he stuck out his tongue. 

Is not that Ten was surprised with how fast he listened, he didn’t know until which point he should have been, it was not a time to stop and reflect about personalities whilst he was letting him move forward until the tip of his tongue touched his member. 

He stuck it out a little more, licking his hardness up, all the way from the base to the tip, and then he took everything inside his mouth without hesitation. Anyways, he loved to feel it gliding past his lips while Ten tensed above him. With a hum of keenness, he wrapped his lips tight to the cock, being careful to not let his teeth touch it. 

Up and down he went, slowly, reverently, kneading the flesh with his tongue in such a messy way.

His lips were moist, his tongue flicked on the tip, and Ten brushed his fingers through his silver hair. At first he only pushed his bangs back, sweetly, but as the older one sucked hard on the tip, he fisted his locks and pulled, making him tilt his head higher.

He was about to feel bad for being so rough to him when Taeyong mewled excitedly with a smile.

He really was beautiful, and the ongoing scene only added up to the fox's pleasure.

“Would you see that?" almost growled Ten in a state of complete arousal "You really like to have your mouth full like that, don't you?”

He guided him down and then back up until he pulled out. Taeyong let him do it, with his cheeks so flushed and his breath so ragged that he was even more desirable. 

The tight grip left him breathing and gasping for more, and his cock was brought to a full trembling need without even being touched, getting more turnt on. However, Ten didn't expect to see him looking straight at his eyes as he wiped his lips with his tongue, lip smacking with the taste. 

Taeyong's lashes fluttered a bit embarrassed after the inconscient move, because he had fantasized with it before but his foxy eyes were a lot more intense face to face, but there wasn't a single trace of regret.

“I could do it all day long” He confessed, out of it. Is not like it was a moment to play hard to get. “I could suck you off all day long”

Ten’s playful eyebrow raised without remedy, sneer making an apparition as he pulled him back down between his thighs. The eldest didn't move away, nor choke, he stood on his knees and let the blonde tug his hair slowly, pulling him all the way down this time, slow and deep so he could get everything in, unable to repress the moan around him. 

The view and sound was so hot that the first wave of gentleness vanished from Ten's blood. His manners became harder, his trust rougher, doing just as much as he wanted with Taeyong, pulling on his hair to guide him while the white haired boy moaned and felt the pleasure sending a shiver to his crotch.

He felt hard and lewd, legs open as the performance teased him cruelly, making him drip untouched. His eyes shut to suck harder, and his claws dug on Ten's thight desperately, encouraged by the groans that the fox was letting out, not knowing shyness or pride anymore and spacing them less every time. 

Even though it was Ten the one who had him pinned as he pumped in his mouth, Taeyong put much effort, stroking it with his lips and using his tongue to swirl around it.

He looked up through his lashes, eyeing him like an angel and silently wanting to ask him if it was good enough for him just to hear a heartfelt yes. 

He was successful at suppressing the slight need of gagging when Ten thrusted in fast and deeper, urged by Taeyong’s dark glare. He tried to take everything in and moaned around it, sending vibrations through his body and the slight pain of Taeyong's nails being dragged all across his thighs.

With only a look up to his face from the floor, Taeyong could see all the raw lust taking on him. 

The sudden thrusts made him close his eyes, trying to focus on breathing, even though he knew he was drooling and letting it drip from his chin, as he started going deeper and Ten moaned louder. He couldn't help but moan too, and ignite the first sparkle of disaster with the sensation that the sound made go through the youngest. 

He parted his lips, probably to warn the wolf, but just a groan went out as he let himself go all out on his tongue. 

Apparently, that wasn’t a big deal for Taeyong, he just swallowed straight away, making the fox exhale feverishly as he released his hold on his hair so he could pull back, getting the last drops of it on his face. 

His butt flopped on his benbent legs on the floor. 

The older one paused and looked up to him, staring right back with his lips parted, a drop of sweat running down his temple and a definite mess all over him. 

“What the fuck, Taeyong? You really are something...”

He smiled, between exhausted and extasiated, but mostly and definitely feeling turned on, burning within his skin after the interrupted season of touching that wasn’t helping him out. 

Ten held his face carefully and helped him wipe everything out with one of the sheets that was falling over the edges of the bed and that would surely need to be washed that same afternoon, anyways. 

Taeyong let him clean his cheeks, as he wiped off the stain on the corner of his lips with a cat lick but he stared at Ten with a tint of desperation. 

“Are you going to let me here like this? I am very hard right now” he asked in a breath, to which Ten chuckled amused, holding his hand and dragging him towards the bed with him.

“Of course not” 

He pulled him on top of his lap, gently massaging his lower back, kissing him tenderly and tasting the vague salty flavour lasting on his lips. 

His head flopped to the side when Ten touched him, finally. 

The way he was shaking and quivering was a pure reflection of how desperate he was, the tip of his cock swollen and red from holding back. He whined and looked at him again with the most tender eyes anyone could have ever seen on him, begging silently for his orgasm. 

With one hand, Ten grabbed his shaft and worked it up and down, moist spreading over him. It sent Taeyong reeling, back arching and asking for more. Then, Ten traced over his tip with one finger, slowly and leading, to end pumping him again, fast and next faster, getting a gagged moan out of his boy. 

“Better?"

"Ah, fuck- yes"

"You looked a bit desperate. How does this make you feel, babe?” He asked, smiling at how sensitive he was and how his eyes rolled back for a second letting out another moan, still distorted and incoherent. 

He had been dying for this kind of contact, the anticipation had been almost unbearable, and so he felt like his words faltered. 

“Ahh… makes me like you even more” He said without preambles, which made Ten let go of his cock for a second, a thing that only made it worse for him as the burning sensation doubled. 

He forced his eyes closed as he breathed out hard. 

“You what?” He asked in his ear, licking his lips that had dried just for the pleasure of watching him growing in eagerness. "Repeat that" 

Taeyong thought he would cry, his mind not quite right to play hard to get with him. He asked with the raspiest of the tones, not even trying to conceal how delighted he was with the situation. 

“I thought we cleared that up yesterday” he mumbled. Ten, however liked words and, the mere thought of torturing him for longer and getting more of that erotic vision of his little puddin setted him off. 

“It sounds better right now, because you sound…” The youngest put his hand on the other's chest and started tickling the way down to his pulsing erection. He was already moaning with the anticipation of his touch. His breath was really hot and sweet like a burning candle when it hit his face, raged. “Twice better. A million times better, when I’m making you feel good. Who would have said it? But you make my heart burst with happiness so just by.... Taeyongie, look at me, we are having a conversation… just by making you feel good I feel good too, and happy, you don't know how much”

Taeyong couldn't help but attack his lips, their tongues fighting without a break while he arched his back eagerly, hands tightening on the other’s shoulders and leaving thin traces of his claws over his coppery skin. 

The fox flipped him over to lay him on the mattress, curling himself around Taeyong, seeking for a kiss that soon arrived to spread on his lips. It was too rough to let the older one follow the fast and sloppy rhythm, but Ten could not help with him panting and leaking on his sheets, his eyes all shiny and silently begging for more. 

His skin felt like he was touching a boiling pot and the pink of his flushed cheeks only made him look more spectacularly erotic. 

Ten’s leg went in between his, and he grinded on him shamelessly, while his hands descended on his guest’s body, whose breath accelerated with need while he still kissed Ten like the first night ever, feeling the heat of his hardness in a quite delirious manner. 

The fox moved quickly to his night table and crawled back with a small bottle with painted cherries on the label. He clicked open the container and allowed the slick substance to ooze way too generously along his fingers. 

“Cherry lube because you remind me of a wild cherry from the woodlands”

“I do?” panted Taeyong. 

“Yup. I think if you painted your hair pink you’d look so sweet like one”

Taeyong was tangling his white soft hair on his fingers, about to respond something among the lines of how he could try that, but he ended up just grasping it tight as the pleasure intensified when two fingers entered his ass without further questioning, pushing gently, nicely, whilst the bliss was too good for him, slick and smooth. 

He whimpered Ten's name beautifully, in a way that had the fox understanding how it was to get hard again right after an orgasm from listening to someone's begging. 

He held his digits there for a moment, gradually starting to move in and out, curling and twisting to get him as open and allured as he could possibly be, already getting waves of pleasure between his legs thinking about the next move. 

With Ten stretching his hole, his walls tensed and relaxed tightening around him deliciously. Damn, Taeyong was reeling in the sensations and craving his dick to be inside of him, pounding with little to no mercy. 

After some minutes, long enough to make him feel already helpless, he felt the intense necessity of pushing back into his fingers, trying to fuck himself deeper as he got them to bury entirely inside, clashing on Ten’s palm. 

But it was good for him. 

Just to see the way Ten took his time with him, putting him on the edge and treating him like the king of the house made him have literal goosebumps. His heart was too full just knowing that, for the time spent with him, he no longer had to carry the weight of being a strong keeper for an entire ecosystem, but just a pup, as he said, that could rely on the ministrations of someone else. 

He was the center of attention for a spawn of time, he could be pleasured like a spoiled boy and get a warm breakfast on the table just for himself. 

Ten pulled his fingers out halfway and then back in, with a calm pace. It went by a couple of times but Taeyong was sure that if they kept doing that for much longer he would end melting untouched

“I want you, please, help me… please..." 

"Oh, look at you..." murmured Ten, moved with his mildness, crawling over him and giving a slow and stuck-up stroke on his cock before he reached down again. He kissed his lips, skillfully but perfectly sweet, making Taeyong’s mind spin for the paused calm of his partner opposing his body, that was turned up and going 400 km/h "Are you begging?" 

"Yes. Ten… Ten, please, I'm being good, right?" 

The fox felt how he himself melted down at Taeyong’s question, looking for the slightest validation to satisfy himself. 

"You are being the best boy ever" 

“Then… I…”

He moaned before he could wrap the phrase up, with the pressure Ten was putting on his entrance, three fingers reaching far into him, softly at first and then harder, ongoing in crescendo. His body tensed. He felt the precum dripping down to his own stomach, but how could he keep it for him when his dick ached so bad for a touch, hard as ever.

Their gazes locked together as Ten pulled out and gently leaned over the wolf, brows knitting together as his hand worked a bit more of the cherry liquid on his again hard member. 

Taeyong could see all of his emotions clouding upon his expression, shining under the bright stripes of morning light that filtered through the windows, wanting to do everything, but not only that time. 

All the times they had to come. 

Slowly, the older’s legs wrapped around his hips and he got in his place, lining in front of his impatient entrance to finally sink down deep inside. 

He felt every inch of it, the way it pushed through the tightness of his opening, helped by the most of the lube, as it filled him and his nerve endings became the most sensitive surface to ever exist. 

The youngest gave a short but powerful thrust and grunted into his ear, gently but relentlessly filling up his cute and lovely companion. He stopped a bit to let him catch his breath, lacing his fingers with Taeyong’s at both sides of his white head to keep a steady support and then slammed all his length in, hard, giving rise to an obscene sticky wet sound, pushing all the cherry liquid either inside or dripping on Taeyong’s legs, making the feeling as smooth and slippery as it was unmanageable. 

Taeyong shrieked, for he felt so ecstatic his body was shivering, contracting and relaxing in convulsions around his cock, but Ten, too, felt so good that his eyes shutting down didn’t prevent him from seeing everything lighten up and slowly blind him. Taeyong was warm, wet and smooth, causing his head to go spinning, getting dizzy just out of pleasure.

“Oh… fuck, you feel incredible”

“I make you feel good?” asked the other, in the only way he was able to, which was panting. “You like to have me all for you like this?”

“God, Taeyong, yes” he groaned, so raspy and straight to the point that the wolf thought he would get through right away. So very lustful it put him really close to break. 

He had been on the edge of cumming for a while but the slow pace started to loosen up and he was getting too damn close. He was in the throws of ecstasy, thrusting back all the way inside him to meet his pace, his prostate being hit once and once more with Ten’s dives. 

"Ten… Ten.." he called with his arms lacing around his neck and a relentless necessity of having him closer. "Is… is it going to be only me now? You are going to play only with me from now on?" 

"Yes… I don't- I don't need no one else, not even want that" 

"Really?"

"You don't even know, baby"

"God, fuck me harder, please!" 

This time, he indulged him quickly, he didn't pause to make him titillate. He went out again, leaving a little bit more than just the head inside and immediately slamming back inside his ass. 

And damn, he was so tight and adorable, he was like the purest guardian of the purest forest but with the worst ideas in his mind when a certain fox crossed his path bringing in his purple magic. 

He stroked the boy's white hair, as the later melted in the sweetest noises of their bodies clashing, trying desperately not to cum before Ten... but it was useless to do so. 

The adrenaline rushed through his veins. The apartment filled up with the noises of skin slapping against skin and slippery kisses. His stomach became so tight as they speeded up, making his cock twitch caught between their bodies with a hot and aching sensation, breaking down as he crossed the line of piercing pleasure squirming under the fox and painting a line over his own stomach. 

He could hear the loud thumps of his own heart ravaging his eardrums and the high volume of his voice upon the traffic outside. He could feel his body clenching and jerking with the orgasm, the drop of sweat running down his face while Ten still caressed his hair and pumped in, with his lips attached to his neck on a kiss. 

The fox held his waist down with one hand and the other taking the benefit of wrapping around the older’s dick, helping him ride that wave of ecstasy to the possible limit, dripping more and more. 

The moan that left the blonde’s lips made Taeyong’s skin vibrate, opening his eyes to face his most explendid moment of elation. He felt Ten's body getting stiff for a moment, the sweat glowing on his skin and his cock jerking and spasming inside him as he finished with the last sloppy trusts of his hips, until he came to a halt, breathless. 

It was good to be laying back, because Taeyong’s legs were shaking when he got to eye Ten again, looking at him without shame, his rather long hair spread on the mattress, not even leaning on the pillows but both crossed on the bed just as they had fallen on it.

The youngest collected himself and with a careful move pulled out. 

He was sweating, still wet and sticky, but he couldn't care less if he was having Taeyong in front of him with his small and plump lips parted, too sexed out to speak more words than the “Hug me” he uttered whilst spreading his arms over the sheets.

"Hug me, touch me here, touch me there, fuck me harder… I really take back the selfless thing I said about you, you really like to demand things"

"But you give them to me" he whined "I would say, in fact, that you enjoy it. Ain't that perfection?"

Ten beamed, coming down to meet with him again, laying on his chest with their legs and arms intertwined, allowing himself to give Taeyong a reassuring peck on his lips. 

“How was your first experience with morning sex, then?” 

“I could get used to starting my days like this” joked Taeyong, although it wasn’t that much of a joke, his body felt like a battleground. “But it has to be with you! You think you have the energy to do it in the morning? Without getting coffee first?”

They both broke into a full laughter together. Ten knew Taeyong was joking, of course, and picking on him for fun, but half of his happy cackling came from the sudden warmth he felt when the older one said it had to be with him. It felt so… fresh and natural. 

“Don’t worry, endorphins raise me up faster than caffeine. But if I’m too tired I can let you sit on top of me and jump on my lap, it would do. Or you could do me if you want” He retorted. Taeyong laughed with his nervous laugh that made his cheeks turn a warmer color. “How can you blush right now? You have been literally dripping”

“I’m a sensitive pup” he cheerfully said with a funny pout. 

“Don’t swear it” 

He then exhaled, closing his eyes all relaxed, feeling so at peace, laying on his bed and cuddling with an amazing boy, both liking each other and enjoying each other's company. 

For him it felt like his hearts were beating at unison if that was even possible.

"Did it hurt?" asked Taeyong, and it took him a moment to understand what he was talking about without opening his eyes, for his finger was tracing the black lines on his chest like a feather caressing him.

"Yes… but it was bearable"

“What is it?”

“Moon and stars”

“Ah… because you are a night creature?” said Taeyong lightly, mostly as a joke, but the serious humm of Ten confirming his words surprised him a little. “Really? But… those spikes up here doesn’t look so much like stars, more like something thorny. It looks a bit sad...”

“Hmm. When it’s night time I am more likely to feel anxious… unsettled, maybe? The moon and stars are always up there, and they are still and unchanging. You know I’m everything but unchanging… I wanted to snatch a bit of it and carry it around”

“I… I like that you change” said Taeyong a bit stirred, propping his chin on Ten’s chest. The blonde opened his eyes to stare right into his, the adoration spreading on his dark pupils. His words had felt so straight into his soul so delicate it was surprising for himself. “You are really flowy and gentle like the moon. It has fases right? You are able to adapt to any situation happening around you, you have shown me that a lot, whether is a hunter, or something else, you get up and carry on and try your best. Without you I may be a lost case by now, I am at your place after all”

“I wouldn’t be any better without you, we have proved that” he said, giving him another peck and the widest, most genuine grin he owned.

"How's your arm?" He asked, knowing what Ten meant with his sentence. 

The wolf angled his head a little to point at his shoulder with his nose. "Take a look if you want"

Taeyong shifted ever so slightly on his spot, raising a bit on the bed to stare at the scab that was already closed and waiting to regenerate completely as soon as it could.

That would leave a mark, for sure, but is not like the fox really cared about it. 

"My doctor did a good job" Ten declared. His fingers were stroking Taeyong’s pink cheeks all the way up to his hair, pampering him carefully with his look totally lost in how perfect he found that wolf of his. He inhaled, fondly, pulling him closer. “How are you feeling?”

“Satisfied” 

Ten gave him a sincere laugh. 

“I meant… besides the unmistakable fact that you are pretty needy” 

“Ah…” answered the older one, sighing with a lower sounding pitch. “Well, last night I was… scared, I was sad and I felt all the regrets in my chest as I saw you come back. I really… I shouldn’t have let you go that day, I am very sorry for that and I hope you can forgive me for being so selfish…”

“You were hurt for what I did” said Ten, reflecting out loud “Sadly, I am someone who has lived away from the forest and I forgot that I could carry humans in and cause a mess”

“No, you were right” Ten looked down to Taeyong, quite surprised. The wolf had his gaze lost in the ceiling, but he stared at him to end his phrase. “Is not your fault that someone else reacts badly, you cannot choose for them, you are not a part of their bad decisions” 

He smiled, with an emotional typhoon strolling inside him because he couldn’t even recall the last time someone understood that he wasn’t the one to choose how people make their choices. He really needed that, a break, a moment to breathe in and remember that his skills were an independent thing from his morals and his value. 

The look that Taeyong gave him, with his dark and shiny eyes, was about everything he could ever wish for. It took his clouds away so very fast that his heart felt a sweet loss of balance. 

“So you feel better now, baby?”

“I do” nodded Taeyong with a loving smile painted on his lips “I know there are going to be a lot of things to work on, that out there in my world there’s a mess raising up but I feel glad that I said my apology to you. Thank you, you calm my fear down and make me feel safer” 

Ten jumped up from the bed, taking either of the pairs of pajama pants that had been energetically discharged on the floor before he could break down and cry of happiness in the spot. 

“I’m going to make breakfast, you must be hungry from all the morning exercise”

“Yes, thank you”

“Do you want coffee?” he laughed, volume and pitch peaking up as he ran downstairs dodging a pillow that Taeyong threw equally amused. 

So romance wasn’t that bad after all, uh?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This two lovebirds~ are a bit naughty anyways.... hahahaha   
> As you can see, I added the chapter number to the description and I'm updating for a second time in the week. This is because I finished writting the entire thing in my drafts so I am considering to post more often like this (twice a week). Hope you are loving this story like me, thank you for reading and for leaving comments, they help me a lot when I write so I can improve and do better so, if you have thoughts about the story so far, I would be happy to read them.   
> See you soon!


	11. Don’t wear your heart on your sleeve

Taeyong's nose scrunched cutely in a face of absolute disgust, kicking his legs and throwing Ten into an out loud fit of laughter. 

Even through the strong taste of coffee playing with his tongue and the cute pose of his eyebrows, he giggled too, because he wasn't only having fun but also adoring Ten's full hearted laugh, high pitched and lovely to match the shape of his eyes turning into crescent moons. 

"What did you expect? That the taste of coffee had changed?"

"No, but since you seem to like it I wanted to try again and see if I remembered well" said Taeyong, pushing the plastic cup of the coffee take out service towards the blonde again. 

He had stopped by a stone bench inside the shopping center where they had spent most of the morning at, mainly because in their new situation, Taeyong had ran out of personal clothes and Ten wasn't prepared to feed two people with the content of his fridge. 

However, somewhere through the choosing of a few clothes, a brief grocery shopping and a couple more of Taeyong's whims, the thing had turned easily into a date.

It made the fox think that dates could be more spontaneous than he had thought at first, when he imagined a fancy dinner with a high number on the bill and very planned outfits that take hours in front of the closet, finally propelling you into a wardrobe crisis where you suddenly have nothing good to wear. 

In the case of Taeyong, however, it was shocking to see him fully embrace the urban vibe, because once he didn't have to be prepared to walk between brambles, he had put himself in a chic set of jeans, a plain black tee and a matching black beret that held his hair inside, letting only some pale locks scape at the sides, leaving his forehead free. 

It was simple yet stylish, with some accents here and there due to his hanging earrings. 

His face was so very well sculpted that, having his hair out of the way, he looked like one of those celebrities that appeared on the big led screens of the shopping center. 

The look suited him so much it even made Ten gawk for a moment when he put it on.

"What's the review, then?" Asked Ten, continuing their natural route across the Central Plaza, with a chill pace, as if they were just strolling through the forest, even though the setting was a lot more different. 

In his hands he was holding his cup because, apparently, the love for coffee that Taeyong had mocked him about was realer than he expected, and the smaller one enjoyed a couple of doses a day. They took the time to order a bacon egg cheese bagel too, and they were almost taking turns to bite it while they did some more window shopping. 

"2 out of 10 points, not edible"

"It has two points, at least"

"Just because it's the base for Java Chip frappuccino, it would be a plain zero if not" 

Ten giggled amused, letting the cold of his iced coffee sink into his palm just not to have to switch it to his other hand, which Taeyong was using to slowly lace their fingers together.

He looked down to their intertwined digits, marveling in silence about that sprout of happiness that surged from something so simple. With it, he felt the light-headedness of height, still a bit resistant, because no one loses their habits in a day, nor in month, but he wasn't as scared as before to need a vertiginous turn from it. 

"You like Java Chip?" He asked softly without noticing his tone, more concentrated on Taeyong's nod. "I know a place that makes that blend really well, it's probably my favorite place to go out". Taeyong nodded again, maybe a little bit out from Ten's nuance due to his attention focusing on some colorful phone case displayed in a store's window. The youngest couldn't blame him, there were a lot of things to get your eye caught in Busan, especially if one is usually stuck with trees, so he clarified. "I want to take you there". 

Now that hit his understanding, abandoning the phone case to smile at the blonde lovingly.

"You want to show me your favorite place?" 

He paused for a second as they kept walking, arms swinging distractedly back and forth, and then he gave a firm nod that made Taeyong look actually indulged. 

Then he bit his thumb a little, as if he was hesitating about something. 

Taeyong had that bad habit of messing up his fingers when his mind was spinning something around, just unconsciously as if it would be fixing anything. 

All morning since they went out he had been in that restless mood and had decided that it was good for himself to adopt that air.

He had been known it wasn't all that nice for his head to be isolated in a corner of the forest like some old hermit, but his state of mind had pushed him to stay there for years since the last people left, unable to see how he deserved to go seeking for them to come back.

So that morning, waking up in the city, he believed he had the right to give himself that awesome awakening with cuddles, his warm breakfast, the charming smell of wet soil from the previous night miraculous rain… just a break.

Is not like he had a solution for the shameful show humans were putting up in mind already, so why not enjoy quality time for himself as he tried to figure it out. He couldn't just keep pushing against a wall, resting for a short moment wasn't bad. 

"Can I ask you something, Ten?" 

The fox seemed to go back to reality with the question, as his eyes had been looking at everything and nothing while his chest felt that wash of wide range emotions, maybe just smiling like a fool. 

He finished sucking the straw of his drink and moved his head. "Sure"

"I asked you once but I guess… we were not at a stage where you could end up answering. Why did you decide to live in the city?"

Ten knitted his eyebrows. For a moment Taeyong asked himself how he would feel if they still weren't in the lane to talk about that, but then Ten tilted his head to the side.

"Well… it may be sorta warped. Back then, in my grandparents' times, maybe in my great grandparents' times, there was still balance enough for my kind to live in the forest all together, but you have seen with your own eyes that humans have become ruthless. My parents saw how the number of us decreased and decided to settle down here and live in this form for protection, like many of us in these times... they are not too good at it though" 

Taeyong smiled faintly "They aren't?" 

"I don't know, everyone has different preferences I guess. They like the fox form more, maybe they are used to it because they lived most of their childhood like that, but they had me and I was small. A shot like this?" He said waving his almost completely healed arm, specially after dipping inside the lagoon the night prior. "It would have ended me, so I guess they made that choice for me. It’s only with a lot of effort and energy that a kumiho can turn into the really menacing final form"

"You like this form best, right?" Inquired Taeyong curious, finishing the bagel that Ten had abandoned a little while ago in his hand. "Your human form, I mean. Or do you think it's because you are used to it?"

"Both are mine so I like both, for real, any of them is just a part of who I am" said Ten. He had become more pensive as he spoke, surprising Taeyong with his seriousness. The fox had told him before that he was often dragged to think too hard, but looking at it eye to eye made him want to take a deep breath, hold him and caress Ten's face with the back of his hand. But since they were in public he was demur. "I usually enjoy this one a lot more, anyways. I am not sure why, I guess I found out that I can't hate humans as much as there are many of them that are awful. There are also a lot of them that I wanted to keep fine and be friends with, and this shape makes me able to knit deeper bounds”

“Yeah, sometimes animal bounds don’t get all that details”

“But it's a double blade” added Ten, very serious with his words “Because as I grew up, I saw how I could use this body as a weapon in a world dominated by humans. It was easier to hide inside it if I wanted, and eventually I became a shell of myself" 

Taeyong felt like maybe he had said something that grieved Ten, since the fox sounded so delicate and kind of nervous. He wanted to relieve him and put him out of that feeling, after all, he was sharing a personal thing with him and Taeyong wouldn't have liked to abuse. 

"I- I like this form of yours too. I have seen how you are as a fox and it’s really adorable, all small, luminous and magical… but I like when you kiss my neck with your soft lips a lot better"

Ten, effectively, chuckled with the green plastic straw of the coffee poking his lip. 

"You needy pup" he said, wrapping his arms around his waist and making the pale haired one jolt from the sudden contact that was topped with a smooch on his temple. "You are quite cute as a wolf too" 

He laughed sweetly, lacing his hand with the boy again as he resumed their walk, being Taeyong the one who held them motionless that time, just for a moment longer that allowed him tk look at his eyes.

"Thank you for sharing that with me" he barely whispered. "I love you" 

"You needy, sweet pup" muttered Ten in return, before Taeyong gave him a low, secretive and wolfish growl that made him look at him quite surprised and amused, both for the novelty and the slightly untamed nature of it. 

Taeyong had a fun way of showing his shifts of form, a lot more subtle than his, and Ten was definitely charmed by all the tones in between. 

“Can you refrain from making me want to run you down here?” he joked, still with half of the truth taking part into his words. “This is a public domain, and although I could find some pleasure in that…”

“Oh, shut up” said Taeyong, cutting him off "So, fine, I'll tone it down, but just because I want to go to that good Java Chip place, I'm hungry" 

"Okay, let's go there now if you want. It's a fifteen minutes walk, more or less"

"No problem, you know I walk a lot" 

"Cool. But one more thing before we go, baby"

"Uh?"

"My friend Xiaojun works a part time job there, that’s why I know the place”

“And?”

“My friends and I usually spend about 24/7 of our free time hanging around there… Are you okay with that?” 

"With meeting… your friends?" 

“Yeah, because they are very likely to be there when we arrive and I tell you, they are not going to act indifferent about me walking in with the beret model" he said, chuckling. 

Taeyong only took a moment to feel his face warming up with the compliment.

Every damn time, Ten was able to put his body there with the snap of his fingers, with just a few words if they were said with his manners and his eyes’ shine. 

The older one stopped to see him, feeling that strange thing on his chest again, as if his breath was taken from his lungs and sent floating into the air. That thing he felt more and more often with the pass of time, the sensation of Ten’s eyes containing an endless gentleness, so genuine and a million times more irresistible than his enticing fox charm. 

His lips were so pretty he was close to losing focus, watching how the bottom part pouted slightly when he was thinking something. He had a small urge to kiss it, wrap with him in a blanket and listen to his breathing all day. 

He wanted him, it stood out. 

“That’s what I meant” said Ten again, putting him back to Earth. “I know you can get a bit flustered, I just want to make sure that I don’t make you… uncomfortable” 

“No” said Taeyong, quickly. “I want to go. I actually enjoy meeting people. I thought you already guessed that from me but I don’t really like to be alone”

“I had some assumptions, yeah” he scoffed.

Nonetheless, despite all the smugness he possessed sometimes, he pulled from Taeyong’s hand gently and started walking downtown, heading to the place where Taeyong supposed they should be encountering that nice cafeteria Ten had talked about. 

The autumn in the city wasn’t that bad.

The ground was a bit wet from the rain, and some brown leaves have formed a sludgy mat where not many trees on the streets reached out. It was a beautiful image, overall, so colorful with the people going each to their destinations, with the cars passing by with their wipers swinging from side to side to keep the little droplets of mist away. 

Everything was alive in a different way than the forest was, Taeyong would have never tried to deny that. He felt a little bit emotive deep down in his guts, and it wasn’t only because of Ten. The bustle of people’s existence sounded good to him, and he was nostalgic with just feeling surrounded by others

It was like a waking call that made him think that maybe he should try to make more friends, go down to the city more often and not just push himself to work all the time in his “obligation”.

He had been all by himself for years, in that forest, and he still had to face problems, anyways, so maybe he didn’t need to push himself that hard. 

Ten had said that himself, he pointed out how Taeyong was usually stuck in his need of satisfying some crazily high expectations of himself forgetting that he needed to do some self-care, as well.

His skin tingled a bit as he thought how the fox wanted him to stay safe.

He remembered faintly that he had been friends with kids his age when there were families living in Ahopsan. They were in their school and high school years at most.

There was one guy with black straight hair and round glasses that he loved to fool around with, whose name was Kim Doyoung. He was from one of the families that moved out further on, and Taeyong remembered him with a special fondness probably related to some of their joint adventures. 

There was also a bright tall kid named Johnny that visited his aunt during summers and tended to spend most of the time on august’s evenings following Taeyong around and making a mess of himself when he fell from a tree branch that he shouldn’t have been climbing. To be taller than the kids his age, he thought of himself as having the most suitable physique to be some kind of ninja. 

Then Mark was much younger than the other three, but he liked to join their group and no one was uncomfortable with that. He was either a very quiet kid who liked to learn how to play the guitar by himself or just a very, very pumped up preteen with a high-pitched laugh. 

They probably were living in that town, but Busan was freaking huge, it was one of the busiest places in the country, in fact. It may take him super long to tackle something like that, but he wouldn’t know if he didn’t try. Ten could know where to start looking, or maybe they could sound familiar to him, as he seemed to move fluently around the city.

As for the moment, the fox was absolutely spot on with the cafeteria.

When he swung the door open, there was the homelike sound of a small bell that rang announcing their arrival and then he stepped in behind Ten, becoming marvelled as he saw the small naked wood tables crammed with people raising their voices to create a rather loud chatter, forgetting a little about their drinks and plates to just spend a moment of their hectic lives with friends and family.

It was a small place, intimate and painted with a bright beige color. The decoration was so fresh and romantic with splatters of colors there where the hanging plants gave green and pink tones.

Just by the warm smell of hot drinks being served and recently baked bread, Taeyong’s appetite became sharper.

“Hey! Look at who showed up!” said a youthful brunette getting up a little from a nearby table, where all the customers turned around to the door and started smiling and waving in their direction to make themselves be seen. “We were worried that you would pass out in your apartment at this rate”

Taeyong guessed those were Ten’s friends, because he also gave him a nod and started walking towards them, watching slightly entertained how they gradually left their attention to drift to the boy who was walking by his side. 

He felt a bit intimidated by the group of three boys sharing the table, wondering if they would find him likable or not. 

Maybe Ten had told them something about him, like their argument, and they already hated him or something, but he didn’t really have time to think about it because he soon felt the touch of Ten’s arm pressing firmly on his back, which was already an idea to everyone. 

“Ohhh!!” They exclaimed all over each other, a thing that made Taeyong a bit more loose for the immediate laugh they caused. "Oh shit, oh damn!!" 

“Come on, guys, don’t be that loud!”

“Hi, Ten” greeted another boy with light hair, big bright eyes framed by long lashes and a lovely smile. That had to be Xiaojun, because he was wearing the black apron of the cafeteria’s employees, and the name tag he had clipped on it was really specific, if the empty waiter trade wasn’t enough of a clue of his identity. “What are you having? Iced coffee as always?”

“Xiaojun, drop your ass on this chair, Ten was about to say something, I think” 

With the gesture of the brunette, the waiter leaned a bit further to have a peek of the boy standing next to Ten and actually returning him the glance with a coy smile. 

“Whoa. Renjun, replace me for a minute” he said almost shoving the tray to the nearest employee and squeezing his body to fit on the bench next to the brunette that had waved at them first. 

"We'll have an iced coffee and a Java Chip frappuccino"

"And a piece of fresh cream cake, please" added Taeyong.

"And a piece of fresh cream cake, Renjun. Thank you, thank you"

Ten chuckled and shook his head a bit returning his attention to the table where everyone was solemnly attentive of him and his companion.

"So?" Asked one of them, whose dark blue hair and round specs gave him a mature kind of vibe. 

“Well, as you left no room for interpretation, I would like to introduce someone to you, if you haven’t scared the shit out of him by this moment”

"I can't believe this day has arrived" numbled Xiaojun with a smile, to which Ten rolled his eyes before resuming his talk.

"This is Taeyong, I have talked about him with you, guys"

"Hello, everyone, it's really nice to meet you" he said, still awkwardly, even thought he didn't feel pressured. The guys looked nice and funny overall, still speaking all over the place and greeting him, inviting the wolf to sit with them.

He occupied the spot next to Ten, as the blonde was offering him a seat and then pointing to the boys one by one. 

"This quiet baby is Sicheng, but we call him Winwin" 

Sicheng. The name sounded familiar. So this was the neighbour he had heard Ten talk about sometime, when they were distractedly talking about things they did in their free time. 

The older one looked over at him curiously. 

A boy with short auburn hair, messy locks spilled here and there. He was taller than him, and definitely taller than Ten, carried some attractive sharp eyes adorned with a brown flick of eyeliner that contrasted with a rather serious but cute face, and had a carefree way of dressing, with a simple black hoodie.

Then he pointed to the hyper brunette sitting in front of them in a pink hoodie, hair messy and really long. "He is Hendery, a total dumbass"

"Hey!" He protested midways through his wave to Taeyong and causing the laugh of the waiter sitting next to him.

"And by his side there's Xiaojun, a statement that's almost always valid, no matter the situation" 

"Perks of being a couple" hinted Sicheng to Taeyong. 

"And here by your side, the older brother, Kun" 

"Nice to meet you" he resolved politely, and then looked to Ten with a funny grin. "But you are not really wriggling out of this one without explaining what's going on here" 

Ten frowned, being caught straight on. 

Taeyong had never seen him looking so caught in the fly, but it made him smile without even noticing, attention fixed in his cute pout. 

"What did you do to him?" Interfered Hendery waving his spoon in the air towards the pale haired one. "You know? In all the years that I have known this guy, he never sat someone else with us."

"Really?" Asked Taeyong, interested, giving a smug glare to Ten.

If he felt good when Ten praised him, discovering that fact was a good injection of thrill for him.

"He is so… critical" 

"I am not critical" he said on the defensive, just stopping a little to let Renjun peacefully place the drinks on the table, as well as the plate with a big piece of cake and two spoons. "I have singular ideas of what I want"

"I'd say that's called being critical" apuncted Winwin. "You just make it sound good, Lord Appealing Eyes" 

"I didn't do anything" said Taeyong finally, trying out the waters of social life slowly and then dipping in as he proved everyone stopped to listen to him kindly. "Nothing special, I mean. I would like to know what he saw in me, too" 

"I just-"

"Oh, shit, you were right!" Interrupted Taeyong unable to hold it back as he had given a long sip of his frappuccino after finishing talking. "This drink tastes reaaaally good" 

Ten beamed, patting his knee sweetly under the table.

"Just that" he said quietly "You are so cute, bright and genuine that it blows my mind" 

He smiled back, unaware of how Xiaojun was covering his face with one hand with second hand shyness while the others mostly gawked at the fact that Ten had said that out loud. 

“I’m honestly more curious about what Taeyong saw in him” Said Kun, amused with the dreadful stare Ten gave him. 

Taeyong scoffed a little. 

“He is not as much of a handful as you paint him to be, but he is a lot more of what people think he is. He is adventurous, smart, endearing, feisty and, if you let me say so, actually really hot” The last one, made half of the present scrunch their noses while Ten was smiling from ear to ear, of course, he wasn’t that hard to please. “I like that. All of that, you can say”

"So you are dating now?" Asked Hendery with his giddy smile, provoking an exchange of glances between the two boys. Ten's eyes flickered with a tenuous light and so did Taeyong's just before they dropped to the plate a bit bashful. The moment of silence sent Hendery into a small panic, making him clap his hands one time, almost startling Taeyong. "Aaaand now I'm guessing I asked something you haven't talked about. Alright, okay, I'm stupid"

"What were you thinking?" Cooed Kun. 

Taeyong took an exaggeratedly big spoonful of cake, shoved it into his mouth and then mumbled through all the food. "I would say yes if Ten asked me out" 

The boys seemed to turn to look at their friend in unison, already giggling and patting each other full of excitement due to Ten's eyes, leaving the dark glance he shot to Hendery to turn a lot more tender as he face Taeyong again, a funny smile playing with the corners of his lips. 

"So I'm the one that has to ask you out? Do you want it ominously like in the movies too?" 

"Yes, if possible" he answered playfully "But since you kissed me under the rain I think you have that part covered already"

"He did!?" almost yelled Xiaojun, with a smile and out of awe. 

For what Taeyong had extracted in the time they had been there, conversing, the guy was a sucker for romance, but the loud exclamation almost knocked him out of the chair nonetheless. 

"Oh, that was all we needed!" Exclaimed Hendery. "Now Ten turns out to be a spectacular lover boy and rises the bar"

"You could do it too" complained Xiaojun. "Don't blame them"

"The rain is cold! I don’t think it would turn out as beautiful as it looks on TV dramas with background music like ‘You are my destinyyyy’. Your teeth would be rattling and we'd end up catching a cold"

"Maybe not. Let's let Taeyong enlighten us" said Ten, turning to look at the wolf with a self-confident smirk, as the latter chewed more cake. Is not like someone random could control the wolf that way, he wasn’t as passive that he ended up being dumb, but with Ten's irreverent quirk, he felt more than dragged to comply. "How was it?" 

Taeyong smiled, cheeks still full with food and lips stained with whipped cream. 

Everyone understood the silent answer, specially when the newcomer noticed he was being observed and had that stroke of shyness that made him shrink and hide behind his hand with his nervous laugh, but being happier than he had been in some time. 

"Oooh, he is blushing, we are fine" sang Ten giggling honestly as the rest of the boys attended the scene, more touched than surprised at that point. 

Taeyong did his best to find a hiding place, leaning over Ten and putting his face on the crook of his neck.

He almost jolted in front of everyone when Ten started stroking his pale hair gently getting rid of the beret to caress at the crown of his head, right where his wolf ears should sit if he had them showing. 

That place made him tingle a lot, and he knew Ten was aware of it.

"You wanna date? Let's date" he whispered onto his white locks, pressing a small peck. The older one really felt how all the skin of his body got goosebumps. "I want you too, Taeyong. I like you too. You make me feel… so good and happy. So if you have the same feelings I would like to turn this into the next step" 

He hummed with his heart so warm he was sure Ten was getting the heat through his skin as he nudged closer to him, wrapping his arms around him. 

"You know my answer, I said it"

"Again, please"

Taeyong let out a small happy sound and nodded "I would love to"

"It's getting messier up there" commented Winwin in the background of their little scene, which they dropped for the sake of Hendery who looked like he wanted to throw up when they went back to look at the table. 

Ten turned to the point where Winwin's eyes were lost, as the TV of the cafeteria showed some images of people protesting at the city hall's entrance. 

It was muted, as always in that place, but the titles were rolling and said it had been a week of protest already that aggravated with the fire, which burned around four hectares before the rain kicked in thankfully.

The fire was traced back to a malfunction of a mechanic saw that caught fire due to an electric fail combined with the fuel inside it, which caused an small explosion. 

Naturally, activists were even more enraged than before due to the incompetence of the operatives, and had moved to louder protest, accompanied with more people mobilizing due to recent events.

"Are you watching TV now?" Said Kun to Sicheng, as he had his cup of coffee. "You addiction with technology is getting bad" 

"No but this feels especially sad. Ten seemed worried, and when he asked us to go and sign literally all the five petitions that organizations have put up, I realized it was fucked up. And it seems like we haven't been listened, I feel frustrated"

Now that made Taeyong turn around to look at the fox with a silent question in his eyes, which was answered by nothing less than an elusive gaze, and the slight lowering of his head to hide how pink his face had gone.

For one time, it wasn't Taeyong, for he was smiling so bright with the reaction and… more than anything with the gesture. 

He had heard Ten wasn't doing that well when they argued and he thought that maybe in that time Ten had loathed him, maybe just to comfort himself, but not even that. He had gone out and signed everything and tried helping him and the forest even from afar. 

He cared about him, and he cared about the forest they belonged to, and that meant much more to Taeyong that the java chip detail could ever do. 

He felt like happy tears would come out from him because suddenly he felt so full. 

"Really?" He mumbled to the fox that was giving him that side look of embarrassment. "You did all of that?"

"Bet" answered Hendery while Ten shrinked on his chair. "He made us all walk to the center on a Saturday morning to sign papers. Imagine if he looked committed to drag us all, you must know how packed the center is on Saturdays. But it was a good action, actually, so I'm glad we did. All of us ended up putting money in the fund for lawyers. Many people showed up, so I had hopes for it to work too"

“At this point I am not so sure they can stop it” butted in Xiaojun, specifically answering to, who appeared to be, his boyfriend. “Only a miracle”

“A miracle would be good” mumbled Ten under his breath. 

"Are you also interested in ecologism, Taeyong?" Asked Kun with nothing but innocent curiosity in his voice. 

Taeyong's chuckle must have sounded a bit bitter, but he couldn't keep it inside despite his happy vibe for the day.

"I guess I am. My… my family worked hard with... environmental sustainability, so I can’t help but feel attached, I guess. It may be of no use nowadays, for what it seems”

“Hey, baby, don’t say that. What you did was an incredible job, don't be sad, you know we’ll figure that out” said Ten still stroking his hair, with more reasons that time as he saw Taeyong languish and sip slowly from his drink. “Look at me. You know that, right?” 

"You'll help me?" he said putting his attention on him as he had asked.

"Of course. I said that I will help and I'm not taking that back, you don't have to worry about doing this by yourself"

Taeyong nodded with a soft smile. At least he wasn’t alone with all of his melancholy this time. 

No more lone wolf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I particularly like this chapter? I DO.


	12. Don't let me dishevel

Taeyong definitely looked like a cherry with his hair colored on that ripe pink tone. 

Once they came back from the cafe with their shopping bags that included the batch of hair products Taeyong apparently needed for his scalp to be maintained in optimal conditions, Ten saw him triumphantly take out the dye box from the bag, and it wasn’t as if the fox didn’t have seen him pick it up from the mall’s shelf, but he still stopped under the bathroom's threshold for a few minutes to look at him, in awe, as he washed the leftovers off in the sink. 

He guessed, then, that he could get used to a more urban-like Taeyong, with his bright hair and his loose shirt. 

But that wasn't the point they should aim for.

As much as Ten would have liked it, he knew that they were not like others, especially Taeyong, and the conversation about the forest in the cafe had made him think.

Taeyong was still very, very young for what his kind probably considered, but he had ended up alone soon, by himself to watch over an ancient forest, older and realer than him, with no one to finish teaching him all the things that should have been taught. And he still took the task with impressive diligence, respecting every moment of work that his bloodline had put in it for centuries. 

The fox understood all the responsibility, the gravity of the matter that wrapped around  _ them _ . 

Water was running, far, inside of the bathroom as the older one took a shower, but Ten was sitting in the living room, in a complete silence, hearing the murmur of the drops that should have been flowing over him, with the downcast on his expression. 

There were barely any problems in the world that could be solved by ignoring them, so sooner or later they'll have to stop looking at each other and do something to solve the fact that the forest was being ravaged. 

Ten was scared. 

He didn't even know what could happen if Ahopsan fell. Would part of Taeyong's life go away with it like the bond between Ten and his pearl? Perhaps it would happen just like nothing, and Taeyong could move to the town as everyone else had done, slowly adapting to the peculiarities of their kinds, but Ten knew for sure that it would totally shatter his heart. 

For him it would be like losing a family member, or even like losing a lung. He could only imagine how attached Taeyong was to that forest, knowing every sound and every secret that composed it, as he had proved he did, and every path that hid all of the magical corners. The pond, the stairs, the cabin and so much more. 

He reflected about it with panic, as he thought thoroughly what to do to solve such a thing, with his legs crossed over the sofa. 

Luckily, Ten still had his parents, living in a little apartment in the outlying districts. He could bring Taeyong around some time if everything failed.

He chuckled by himself, thinking about how bizarre the image would turn out if three foxes tried to cuddle a wolf, as if they had adopted a stray cub. 

Then, that issue also struck him. 

He had said already that they were an odd pair, and he meant it. As they both lived not far from all the time with their human form, he almost had forgotten they were technically very different in the essence of their spirits. 

Or that was the theory. Their forces of nature may be far from each other, and the shapes they could adopt had many contrasts as well, but in the quintessence of their souls, weren’t they just two beings that had met with beautiful results?

In his chest, the sprout felt very real day by day, as he let it root and show him the happiness of letting Taeyong in. 

He was overthinking, and he knew it, but there were so many things at risk. Even if nothing happened to Taeyong, even if he could console him in case the nightmare became true, he couldn’t just give up and leave the forest fall. 

He had always heard of the things his parents and elders told him about the source of life that a forest was, and he had visited and enjoyed natural spaces before, but after Taeyong, it was even harder to ignore all the dirt that would spread among their surroundings if the holy forest of Ahopsan was ravaged by humans. 

There was something trascendental under that canopy of leaves getting brown in the middle of autumn, the sacred pulse that made them all able to breath. 

Another wave of guilt invaded him, and it was honestly piling inside him, the reasons to feel that constipated inside of his intestines. 

How could have been so fucking oblivious, blissfully unaware, of the importance of nothing less than the place where someday he would have to turn back? It was pathetic from him, and even with that, Taeyong had been nice and gentle in the way he used to shake him awake. 

The muscles of his back were tensing and becoming stiff, subject to the pressure he was building in his brain and letting drip all over himself. 

It had been a couple of days already since he had told Taeyong that he would help him, and he was still there, like a prune, with nothing to bring forward.

He had thought about stepping into the forest and making more rain fall with desperation, hoping for the humans to go home until the rain stopped, but that plan had a limited useful time and they would come back just as fast when the weather subdued, or even just learn how to work under the rain. 

He could turn into a fox and sneak at night to try to ruin every single tool from the loggers, but it was the major, nothing less, who ordered the activities, and Ten knew that they owned enough money to provide more supplies that replaced the spoiled ones if that happened. 

Everything was a dead end and, like Xiaojun had said, it looked like only a miracle would work. Maybe he was right, but Ten wasn't a miracle worker. Not with that extent of power yet. 

The soft music of Taeyong’s bare feet walking across the house’s wooden floor was almost distant to him. So deep he was in his thoughts that he had barely no time to hide when the older one approached. 

He turned his face away, closed his eyes and breathed in and out once, deeply. 

“Oh?” The low accent from the wolf made him shut his eyes tighter, aware that he had noticed the frame of mind in which he was standing. “Ten? Are you okay?”

What was he supposed to answer?

The panic began to cluster inside his chest, knowing that he couldn’t give a yes as an answer. Even if he forced it out, then what? He knew that it wouldn’t work with Taeyong, since somewhere among the development line of their relationship he had started learning the small, fine points of his transparency. 

He wanted to slow down his thoughts, take a pause and breath, but it didn’t work like that. And the more he tried, the more he kept getting an opposite effect, as the sentiments accelerated and took his breath and words away. 

The seconds wriggled out without him being able to answer, because his lips had parted to speak but he couldn’t figure out an order for his worries to leave him. 

His head was heavy, full of annoying impressions of him not being enough, not doing enough, not working hard enough. Those had laced with the voice of his heart that still rooted for himself and was trying to debunk the destructive traitors. 

The cushions of the couch sunk down a bit, letting him know that the wolf had sat on the seats next to him, approaching him carefully like a… ironically, like a wild animal lurking behind some bushes to leap on the prey. With that much tact but exempt of all the malice. 

“Ten” he said, as his hand, warm from the water of the shower, moved up to his wrist, wrapping it lightly and pulling back, making the younger one turn back to face him. His eyes were teary, which made Taeyong press his lips to a thin line and sigh a bit before transforming his concern in a reassuring smile and wiping a tear off his cheek. “Hey, baby, what's wrong?” 

Ten felt his heart clenching in his ribcage. 

The tenderness that Taeyong soaked his moves in was something beyond his comprehension. He didn't know that feeling, it was very new for him and it gave him an astray position of himself. 

Being confused and tense always brought him to frustrated tears. 

In the blink of an eye, and after confirming that Ten was comfortable with his touch, the wolf was getting closer. The palm of his hand pressed gently on his hip and his bony fingers pressed carefully, dipping in his flesh and kneading over his tense muscles to relieve the rigid ache. 

He should have guessed that Ten hated to cry, of course, and let’s not say let someone else see him cry. He was trying to hold it back to an almost choking point, because there were three layers that made Ten. 

The first one was his aspect and superficial gestures, too pretty, light and gracious to believe he was anything more than a trained and lovely fennec fox, but it didn't go past the vibe he gave with his appearance alone. 

The second one was all rowdy and different, hiding all the temper and will under the surface. It was kind, nonetheless, but never in a doubtful way that could make him wimp out. He was opinionated, energetic, fun and he had some sort of brimming mischievousness. 

Then the third one.

It was the innermost part of him that not many people could get a grasp of, for what he had seen, but for granted that Taeyong had started being a part of that group. In fact, he loved every piece of it. Every single one of his facets was playing a part in his building, and every one of them together was what had made Taeyong enthralled whilst all those colours showed up in his cabin like a kaleidoscope. 

That side of him, the third layer, was where he collected all his weaknesses and insecurities, as for example the fact that he was scared of thunderstorms, or that he was actually affectionate and sometimes insecure.

As his hands kept trying to ease him, gently, in silence, Taeyong put pressure on certain spot that would have made Ten moan in any other situation that didn’t make him struggle with vocalization. It was not in a sexual way at all, he was just feeling like melting over the careful consideration for his well being. 

So that’s what being comforted by someone you liked felt like. Oh, yeah, he could see why people liked romance. 

"I know you are the pup but could you, like… humm… play with my hair?” he sniffed, finally releasing some words. 

Taeyong smiled softly, pulling Ten as carefully as you pull a scared animal onto a caress, guiding him so he could sit on his lap, facing him, with his legs resting at his side and letting Taeyong stroke his hair. 

“Say no more”

He gave him time, the time he needed to bury his face on the crook of his neck, trying to control the small hiccups of his body caused by the weeping, but failing a few times, holding onto his fresh, clean shirt, which collar was getting soaked with his tears. 

He held him in silence, still rubbing his lower back until he felt the way Ten's body softened, releasing the rigid air of his lungs. 

His fingers trailed a soothing pace, taking care of the back of his neck and his upper back too, guiding them to the spots that made Ten do that purr-like sound. 

"What's wrong?" He tried asking again once that the shaking of his body eased down and became a sleepy up and down of breathing. 

"Dunno. Sometimes I am like this, just a mess that cries and runs to the corner and hopes no one see me"

"Do you need me to leave?"

"No" he said quietly, hugging him a bit tighter. He bit his lip,  knowing that he had to spit it out. He had been learning that bottling things up was not so healthy for him,  and he was challenging himself to improve it. Hendery and Sicheng had already told him to talk more stuff out with the wolf if he really needed him around. He tried to speak through the barriers inside him. "You… it...it doesn't feel wrong" 

"Good, then I’ll stay with you, don’t worry”

Ten drew another inhale and then asked so very softly “Does this annoy you?”

Taeyong immediately knew what he was talking about, and felt the strong necessity of pulling Ten back a little to look at him as he spoke, holding his face in his hand, making sure each of his words reached his understandment. 

His eyelashes were heavy with the reminding tears, framing his reddened eyes. 

"Listen up. Don't even consider that I could be annoyed because of you needing a break. There's nothing wrong with that or anything that could bother me." He stated, letting him return peacefully to his shoulder, where he leaned his forehead to shed a couple of tears more. He didn't even know why anymore, he just felt safe enough to do it, suddenly confident to have someone that allowed him to explore himself a bit more. "But what is it, honey, you were very hectic this morning. I can't help but to worry" 

"I am frustrated" finally confessed the small one, without thinking a lot. 

“And why is that?”

"Ever since the other day I've been wracking my brains to find a way to stop the mess going on in the forest, but all the solutions I can think about seem too weak and make me think that they'll forget about it and come back later to keep with their shit. As if everything is a temporary fix. It makes me want to do better and I disappoint myself not doing better"

"Ten…" he exhaled, playing with his hair softly. "I know the forest is a big deal, especially at this moment, and I don't want to make you feel like this. If it's too much I… I don't wanna be a burden"

"You are not, it's just that… It stresses me out when I can't make the world the best for… well, for you. For the people I care about" 

"But you already make my world better"

"Uh?"

"I mean, of course I would like to find a solution for this mess asap, you know how important the forest is and what my task and bound to it is, but I understand it may need time, and that's not your fault or mine, it's just what we got and need to deal with it. And the fact that you are trying to help me means a lot for me already. It helps me to feel better. To know you believe in me is enough for me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. The way you supported me from the start and how you commit to help me fills me up with… happiness. Do you understand?" 

"Yes, baby" he answered, still a bit gloomy. 

"These days with you have been so good, I promise you that's true. I am worried but I am happy, I feel like this is myself all the way to the top. So worrying about not making things good for me should really be off the table"

“Seriously? I… Fuck, the way I whine for everything is…”

“It’s okay, Ten” he whispered in response, cutting him up, voice so velvety against his neck that Ten could begin to evaporate over him. 

Of course he was sad and concerned too, but the days of intertwined conversations in their daily life, when they were eating or watching cheap movies, were strange. When something that could be useful came to one of them, they would bring it out and watch the possibilities but, until that moment, there wasn’t one plan that hadn’t been dismissed with a little bit of out loud debate. 

He knew what Ten was feeling. He was feeling it too. 

“Whine if you want. I know… I know it’s hard for you to find determination to speak like this so… get rid of it, take it out of your chest”

“God, you are really a wonder… can I just… keep you forever?” he said, making Taeyong smile. 

"It's a give and take" he joked "I carry my baggage too"

"I don't care, I like you so much. Can't we… like, I don’t know, move to another planet? Where stupid people is still not a thing? How is Mars' terraforming going?" 

Taeyong chuckled, endeared with the tenderness of his boyfriend. "Still a theory" 

“Shit” 

He giggled, and so did Taeyong, hugging him and kissing his cheek, lovely as Ten gave him a low growl of affection, snuggling against him, both falling sidewards on the couch to rest comfortably. 

Finally, the fox looked up at his eyes, black and tender, contrasting with the pretty and stylish pale pink color of his hair, still a little wet after the shower.

He was leaning over him, wearing a soft, gray shirt with long sleeves, and looking like an absolute fairy from a fiction movie. 

The warmth that spreaded from Ten’s core to the rest of his body when he stared at him was beyond all the magic he could do. The feeling of having sleepless nights by his side on the bed remained even from back then in the forest, with the sound of an electric storm around them and the sudden knowledge of something special inside him that was waiting for someone who could read it just as good as Taeyong could. 

It was the look that he gave him. Deepening into his soul, waiting patiently to see what was going on within his thick skull. That feeling tasted stronger than any worry that had solidified in his heart. 

In a soundless moment, he felt the pressure of Taeyong's lips against his, comforting him, but also himself. 

His lashes fluttered quickly, almost taken by surprise in the middle of his daydream.

Taeyong pulled apart rather fast, with a shaky breath. “Is that okay now or should I give you space?”

Ten’s arms worked their way around Taeyong’s body, exploring and caressing the soft lines of his human shape. He could’t find the exact words to answer him, so he just held himself up to brush Taeyong's lips again. 

AlthoughIt nonverbal, it was enough of a clear answer for the wolf, whose heart was flying in his chest again. 

The warmth of Taeyong's skin lingered on Ten's as the first held his face gently, softly and breathy, just like a dragonfly batting its wings to land on a leaf by the riverside. Ten could feel the light dizziness taking off at the bottom of his stomach and clouding his mind, feeling like he was breathing only Taeyong, and tasting only Taeyong wounding his fingers in the cherry colored hair where they started tangling. 

“Can we do this all day?” asked Ten, somewhere in between the light touches of lips on lips. 

He let the world of his mind fade away slowly, leaving Taeyong to take the helm and guide the leisure, delicate lace of their bodies and souls. 

It was astonishing for Ten, learning a little bit more of those manners each time, instead of putting the cart before the horse. 

Taeyong pressed his tongue to the squishy bottom lip of the fox, waiting for him to grant access and start making the thin line that separated them disappear.

However, the sound of the door being knocked on startled him once again while his thoughts were drawn to Taeyong in their weightless moment. 

The eldest pulled back sweetly. 

“It looks like we can’t” he chuckled, letting himself lay down by his side comfortably. 

Ten rolled his eyes a little, taking a moment to breath behind the palms off his hands, patting his own face to shake off the moment of languid closeness and the puffiness that tears had given to him. 

“Winwin?” 

“Yeah, and Kun” 

He heard the voice of his older friend muffled from behind the door. He sighed, letting his shoulders fall a bit lower as he gave Taeyong a stare stained with longing.

“Is it fair if I kill them both in the spot?”

“Don’t show your teeth, fox” he joked “We have time to do this later, open the door for them, they are your friends” 

With the sweet tone of his voice, the younger one sighed once more and gave another really paused, mellow peck on Taeyong’s forehead before he got up from the couch and went to open the door to his neighbour and friend.

He couldn't really say no to him when he acted like that.

“What’s up? Don't you have a house?”

“We ordered food, wanna share?”

Ten leaned on the door’s frame and crossed his arms. For some reason, he found quite funny that they hadn’t figured out what the situation was. 

“If you want to share your dinner with two other people...”

“Oh? Taeyong is still here?” asked Sicheng innocently, but when Ten nodded and hummed in response, the younger one limited to shrug. “We always leave some food untouched, tho. Unless Lucas is here, and he said not to count with him tonight because he has a date. So, does Taeyong like chinese food?”

“Baby, do you like chinese food?”

“I think so!”

“Okay, stay if you want”

"So you are going serious with him" inquired Kun, still standing in the portal outside the apartment, crossing his arms over his chest self-sufficiently. Ten knew that face of him, so smug when he knew he was picking on him successfully. "You call him baby, spend time with him at this hour of the evening, in your place and wearing pajamas… I don't recognize you"

"First of all, this ain't pajamas, okay? They are linen trousers and they were expensive. And second, if you are jealous I can call you baby too" said Ten with all his will to bite back, pinching his cheek sensually, but Kun scoffed indignated and moved back from him. 

"Oh god, no, I would rather die. And besides, that would hurt your Romeo, right? I don't think you can even do that, you like him too much"

"Shut up and come in already, the heater is on" he whined in a way that was almost cute, letting a space open for them to walk in. "Let me grab some plates, we were lazing around" 

“Wait” said Winwin, suddenly.

“What now?”

“We… are not third wheeling, right?” Ten couldn’t help but to laugh about how cute Winwin was every time. Even Kun was smiling wide and giggling under his breath because of the question. “Because I don’t want to, you know, ruin the mood or whatever”

“It’s okay, I like having people around” added Taeyong from the sofa, with his arms crossed over the back and almost making Sicheng drop the bags with food. 

He wasn’t used to dealing with more than one person in that apartment with very few walls. 

“Hello Taeyong, good evening” butted in Kun with a smile, making Sicheng move aside a little and taking one of the bags to start unpacking boxes of food over the coffee table in front of the sofa, were they both started settling, sitting on the floor with their legs crossed whilst Ten skipped quickly to the kitchen to grab some plates and glasses. 

There were egg rolls, a large box with what looked like spicy beef, a delicious looking dumpling soup, noodles with shrimps and so on. There was enough food to feed four people very easily, so it was surprising they weren’t even counting with them at first yet had all those dishes. Taeyong wondered if they just used to grab a lot of food thinking about the others joining in any moment, which seemed very sweet to him. Ten truly had found lovely humans to fill his life with. 

The wolf continued to observe them, unraveling with naturality, as if they had done that a thousand of times before, which was probably the case. 

“New hair?”

Kun's question reminded Taeyong he could relax a little bit more. Having a kind person sitting by his side would be good and harmless. 

He smiled back at Kun, as he sat with them around the table. “Yes, I gave it just a little twist”

“It suits you” commented Sicheng, distracted. "It's cute"

"Really? Thank you, guys"

Ten gave him a plate and sat on the carpet, complacent with the ongoing conversation, and brushed a pink strand of the so-commented hair out of Taeyong’s forehead with an impish grin.

“I told you. But to be fair, Taeyong actually looks good on everything, he has that celestial face all of the time. Very unfair if you ask me”

"Is not like you are precisely ugly" protested the younger of the group "Or as if you have doubted your looks at any moment"

"I didn't say that, but I find him specially gorgeous" 

“It’s fun how you brag about him” added Kun, confidently from the side, while Taeyong did his best to stop his face from heating up and get some blush on it, he was building a certain fame with it. “I didn’t have you for the kind of person that falls for someone and can’t stop saying all the sappy things about them.”

“I guess I didn’t have the chance to show you. I didn't know it about myself, either.”

“He is not going to get worse than Xiaojun” said Sicheng, shameless both in his way to state it and with the way he put a big piece of food in his mouth and kept talking through it anyways, explaining to Taeyong what he was referring to. “He is so corny, you don’t know. I can't stand it. He is the kind of person that sings sad ballads on the car with all his soul, as if he had lost his spouse of ten years” 

“Doesn’t he have a boyfriend?” smiled Taeyong.

“You updated this boy with all detail already, how can you be so gossipy?”

“I am helping him integrate in this mess of a group” retorted the youngest of the room with a smile. "I like him, he is a nice person and we can use some of that in here. I don't know, he makes me feel safe, okay?"

"Unbelievable" joked Ten, amused. 

Taeyong gave those big shiny puppy eyes to the fox, flashing his smile of complacent. 

He knew in a tic that he was enjoying himself being social and having people feeling comfortable around him and, honestly, that was what made his heart start beating with more strength after all the concerns of the afternoon. 

Maybe it was true that he could give nice things to Taeyong and make him happy, perhaps only them being together and living a plentiful life with friends and family was enough of a sacred wonder for their dokkaebi soul to be proud of. 

Ten gave a squeeze to his hand under the table, awarding him with a reassuring, endearing gesture before anyone could catch them and reproach to their faces that they have asked if they needed time alone. 

“Well, it’s good you are telling him the hot issues” said Ten, resuming the conversation that seemed to make Taeyong so happy with a light heart “Because I honestly have no clue of how those two started so I couldn't have explained it myself”

“Does anyone have a clue?” scoffed Kun, playing with the noodles of his plate “It was obvious that they were having something and at the same time a huge surprise for everyone when they came to terms”

"Because Hendery is an awkward idiot" opined Sicheng.

"But he has the biggest heart, you know that" said Ten, shrugging. "I am not surprised they did it, I'm just curious of what was the trigger" 

“The biggest gossip right now is you two, tho” said Sicheng, ripping a guffaw from Kun’s throat.

"I'm aware" 

“You talk a lot about me?” asked Taeyong, smiling wide with his squeaky nervous giggles. 

“How can we not? You still have that mysterious vibe to you” pointed Kun out “Ten had talked about you, quite well if I say so, but the day when he appeared with you was… the real novelty”

“Ten had talked about me?”

“A lot” accentuated Winwin, still through a bunch of food he was chewing, missing the scandalized expression Ten was giving to him as the younger read something on his phone. "Yangyang says you have him eating from your hand. And he adds 'make him do a trick'"

"Give me the phone" said Ten, taking the device from Sicheng's hands to start typing swiftly while the other two presents laughed. 

"So tell us about you, Taeyong" said Kun. "Are you studying? Working?" 

"Uh…" 

As a matter of fact, Ten had warned him that his friends were unaware of the non-human aspects of his life, of course. He imagined how people of their time would react to them saying something regarding that spiritual form of existence.

Is not like he wanted to lie or enjoyed doing it, but in such a situation his mind obviously rushed to say something coherent that fitted his personality at least a bit. 

"I study ethnology"

"Ethnology? What's that about?" Asked Sicheng. "Sounds complicated" 

Taeyong scratched the back of his head, as if trying to make it sound logical. 

"It's a branch of anthropology that focuses on the development of a more diverse society, minding the different cultures of groups" 

In silence while he ate his noodles, Ten raised an eyebrow. Hearing that explanation from Taeyong was stupidly hot, curiously, since he had sounded so interesting and smart. Even if it was only half the truth, he knew Tayong’s interest were focused on that, exactly. 

"How diligent, baby" 

“That sounds very intellectually exciting” added Kun, way too serious. “Have you done fieldwork?” 

“Yes, plenty of it, I think” he answered with a giggle “I have spent  _ a few _ months gathering reviews and research of the outskirts. There are some curious facts and species to learn about around this area. Ten knows too, he came with me a couple of times” 

“The things you could see, guys...” he said, joining into the inside joke between them. 

“You live in the school dorms?”

“No, I have my own place”

“I see… you seem to have installed here quite a lot, that's why I asked. How’s that?”

“Problems with my housing” shortened Taeyong, cinching to the truth again, as his nature tended to be, but dodging the information in which he was a magic creature that guards the sacredness of an ancient forest. He wasn’t in the mood to be branded as a lunatic for talking about his crumbling life, especially. “The forest fire the other day affected the structure and… my neighbours and I had to be relocated by force. I am glad that Ten offered himself to help me out, in the city there’s… not many people I can go to, at this moment”

He said looking at the blonde to smile at him and then keep eating the piece of meat he had between his chopsticks. 

Kun nodded with an earnest expression. Without glasses he looked a bit more intimidating, but the depth of his eyes was still gentle. 

“That’s great, I am happy to hear it. But listen, Taeyong” he said with a tone that mixed the softest menacing tone he had heard in a lot of time. “I know Ten is great, he would help anyone if he really decides by heart that it's worthy, but if you hurt him... I won’t even take an apology”

“For fuck’s sake, Kun!” cut Ten, surprised, his eyebrow gone as they shot up under his bangs. Even Taeyong had looked at him lowkey taken aback because, honestly, he could fear Kun even in his wolf form if he gave him one of his death stares.

“I’m just saying. I don’t want to see you cry a river again”

“We had a disagreement, like anyone else could, take it easy”

“I am so sorry for that, Ten, I shouldn’t have been mad at you, it wasn’t your fault, I was sad and didn't think well about it” murmured Taeyong, making the blonde turn his entire body to look at him. 

“You already apologized for it, and I apologized for my part, baby, we are adults who can solve problems” he said, then he turned again to look at Kun with knitted eyebrows “You don’t need to give him The Talk, I am not dating a runaway murderer” 

“Dating” repeated Kun with a sneer teasing enough to be a silent queue for Ten to get bashful that time. "So Ten did ask you out, uh?"

It was funny how the older one had such a range of overtones to be back at being the most gentle looking person in a second after threatening him. Taeyong guessed he was only worried about his friend getting his heart broken in a cruel way, he could see where was he coming from, since Kun seemed to have taken the most mature spot among the group of friends. 

He nodded with a smile "hmm, yeah, he asked and I said yes"

“I am going to text Hendery to tell him it's official” announced Sicheng while chewing a piece of food, very amused and snapping his phone out. In fact, then he pointed at their side of the table with the camera. “Strike a couple pose”

Ten didn’t plan a lot for that snapshot, just a silly, lighthearted picture of them both, but Taeyong let himself fall closer to him, piecing perfectly in the space of his side and leaning his forehead on his neck like he used to do, almost looking smaller than him despite Ten's height being, in fact, short for a boy. 

Of course, his instincts played him, and he sweetly angled his face to look at him in the eyes. 

Staring into his orbs gave him a thrill it was hard to get in any other way. 

He forgot the reason for the closeness until he heard the sound of Winwin’s camera clicking and the flash blinding him for a moment, yet he didn’t take his attention from him just for a little bit longer. 

In that life he had been living away from his birthplace, building a constant bond with the world of humans, and he didn’t regret that. 

But maybe it had made him forget that every little thing that matters comes from the type of kindness that was held in Taeyong’s way of staring. And so he thought that making him happy was more than perfect, but that still, he couldn’t renounce the form of existence that emanated from  _ their  _ forest. 

That feeling within Taeyong, the brilliance that brought happiness into people, was something he had learned from that magical place.

And in his life… Ten knew he must be kind always, that was something he really much liked to live by.

"He smashed the keyboard, and Yangyang insist that you make him do a trick" 

"Really, give me the phone!"


	13. Don’t doubt someone at their best

"I'll be here in any case, pup, you can be sure about that"

The way in which Taeyong had to take a very needed deep breath made Ten's heart clench inside his chest. 

He comprehended why, and knew he was already doing his best to lighten up the mood, but he still hated that not even his spellbinding drawn of luck could help the fact that their path back inside of the forest had turned into a black mat of ashes staining their shoes. 

Eventually, they had to do it.

They had already taken some days to rest at Ten's apartment, giving the wolf time to heal the pain breaking his insides when he thought about the forest, but it was, in fact, Taeyong the one that had approached Ten on Sunday morning and told him he thought it was a proper moment to go back to the cabin and check if everything was totally lost or if the fire forgave that zone. 

On Sundays, humans rested and so the operations stopped. 

Taeyong also had to do an estimation of the damages that had been caused to find a real solution to them. Things were piling in the to do list, together with the need of kicking humans out of the territory so they could stop cutting trees to build a hideous resort that would bring more and more problems, so ahead they went with their stroll. 

For a second, Ten had pondered on whether he should let the older one have that moment of intimacy with the forest for himself, after days spent by his side and in the middle of a crazy, urban city; or if he should keep him company in case anything bad happened. 

By the time Taeyong had to leave the apartment, he had slipped into a warm sweater and given him a tender, gloomy look that made the fox settle for the last option quite fast. 

He didn't know what they would see when they arrived, Ten wasn't sure of the lenght the fire had reached, for his way in and then out had a very anxious and clear focus on Taeyong, his feelings for him and his state. Maybe they'd truly find nothing but a smoky pile of burnt coals, and he wasn't that sure of how he would be comforting Taeyong then. 

He tried to remind himself what Taeyong's words had been to him, that it was enough if he kept believing in his capacity to endure it.

They really were not that different creatures, although odd. 

The pink haired one was tightly holding Ten's hand, stepping into the part where trees were still standing, now naked because of the fire.

"It's hard to know the way with this view, everything is very different"

"I know… it is very strange" he said, steadily. 

The forest that once he ran through, was chilling now. At least in that part, the charcoal black trees looked so lifeless it was intimidating like a house full of dead people. 

Taeyong’s eyes were jumping from one side to the other, scanning the landscape with care and a deep wish for the spirits and other living creatures that used that zone as resting place to have run fast enough and find another hole to hide. 

He swallowed and breathed once more, leading the way to the inner part. 

“So, tell me” he started, trying to reel a conversation with Ten to ease his mind “You can summon the weather?”

“You mean… the rain?”

“Yes. You… when you came here for me I said I needed a miracle and it started raining out of the blunt. I don’t even think there were clouds in the sky before” 

“I can’t summon the weather. I just can… if I focus a lot of energy on it, I can grant wishes for someone. It’s hard to explain” 

“I have time” said Taeyong squeezing his hand a bit, then he added “And I want to know more about you and your kind, you know I am pretty curious and books are not very reliable when it comes to… dokkaebi, in the most part” 

“Okay so, usually, my kind keep their promises and strive to repay any favor.” he tried to explain “With good intentions, kumihos would bring good omens more easily for the person implied”

“So it’s not that you can choose how to give a… gift? to someone, is more as if you granted wishes”

“Yes, it’s more like that. But I’m not a genie, I was… very concentrated on you that night, and I was worried about the forest, and you sounded very sad and… it was an emergency” 

“I am glad you did because… look at this” he said, doing a gesture with his arm as they kept walking among an anemic version of trees’ remains in a barren-like soil full of stones and branches poured over dark dusty earth. “At least you stopped it before this horrid disaster swallowed everything down”

Ten could sense the devastation deep down in Taeyong's guts, stirring in silence but staining his voice as it came out from his cherry pink lips, provoking the fox to bite his tongue with fear and grief too. He needed to keep him distracted with something, just anything they could talk about to keep him from falling into a pit of sorrow with no ladder to climb back up.

“So, yeah, those are the things I can do, but what about you?” inquired Ten. “You are… holier than me, right?”

Taeyong finally chuckled a bit. The fox had sounded funny, but he knew that his question was serious despite the light tone. 

“Holier? I don’t think it has a mesure. I don’t think it’s holy, either, it’s just… different rules than the ones humans use”

“That is… really sound. I had never thought about it from that point of view, but I guess that's because I have lived closer to them for a long time. I don’t know a lot about dokkaebi either, my parents are more of living it than being didactical about it. They grew up in the wild, after all” said Ten, turning out to get into a deeper mood for the conversation than he planned but yet real about it. There was something in the landscape that surrounded them that didn’t let him escape the truest nature runnin in his veins. It was such a strange sensation, so different and unique from the daily routine. “I guess that, after all, I have human concerns”

“I believe you picked a little bit from each word” he said, earning an unsettled expression from Ten. He shook his head with a faint smile. “Is not a bad thing, baby. I don’t see why would both species fight for their disagreements straight away instead of trying to look for a valid solution. As I said, I like how versatile you are, you go with almost everything that’s thrown at you”

“It’s funny when I hear you admiring me because I was so shocked the first time we met. I thought ‘can someone be so nurturing with little to no reason?’. That’s how I knew you were different from other people I met, is not like I’m very educated about the species of this forest”

“Well, I don’t do much. As you said, I am the watchdog” replied Taeyong using the exact word Ten had used back then, with a happy giggle for them to share. “If what my family has been telling each other for ages is real, then I’m supposed to be gifted with a certain divine touch”

“I could see that being true” interrupted Ten, ripping a shy smile from Taeyong before he could continue. “Easily”

“ The mother of the Earth sent the first person of my bloodline to teach humans of this land how to make fire, hunt and live well, but they had the mission of keeping this world alive too. That’s why there are two forms for me to use, one that can be comprehensive and one that can be combative” 

“That's why you were a wolf that night? To bite back?”

"I guess? But I still don't have everything in my hands, I feel like I lack pieces of the puzzle to know and make it right. I don't think that night would have worked out that way"

"Shall we-"

“Ten, wait a second” 

The call of the older one almost startled him when he called his name, but soon his attention bloomed and pieced everything on his view together. 

They had arrived at the proximities of the cabin and, even though the surroundings weren’t a lot better than the rest of that zone of the woods, there was still some green standing around a small cabin in the middle of bushes.

The grey, ashy tone that had painted the flora all around them had reached the wooden walls a little bit, and the scorching had licked the frame with its tongue, but there were still four walls and a roof standing a few meters away. It seemed like the rain had kicked in in time, and the circular ditch they had struggled to dig all around the house to prevent the floods had helped keep flames away once the rain water filled it in like a ring-shaped canal. 

“Oh, thanks goodness” 

“Would you see that?” murmured Ten clearly relieved, enjoying the way Taeyong let go of his hand for a moment to speed up his steps towards his door, skipping over the ditch. “I told you, you are hard to take down, baby”

“Stop that” said Taeyong with a small jitter, happiness rising up inside him with the discovery as he turned the door’s handle and welcomed the inside of his home. 

The air was heavier than it should have, since the dust and smoke kept floating around every corner in the absence of someone who opened the windows or cleaned the furniture. 

However, Taeyong felt like he was on the border of breaking down. Suddenly, he felt that all his emotions were too strong and his restraints too soft to hold them inside, as he started tearing up with quiet hiccups. 

In the middle of the lobby, he felt how Ten’s hands rested upon his shoulders from behind him, bounding him to reality so he could stand straight on his feet.

“Is everything under check, Yongie?”. The nickname Ten suddenly used made him sob harder, for some reason, tears rolling on his cheek as he nodded energetically. 

“I am overwhelmed. I am so happy that all my things and my family’s house is good, but I think it’s a bit early to come back to this mess of a desolate area. There’s a lot of work to do in here. I somehow expected it to be in a devastated state and I didn’t want to think of big plans before seeing there was something left. I have to clean this up and get rid of the spoiled things that went bad because of the smoke, or the heat, and I just... don’t know how to start from” 

“Baby, let’s breath for a moment, yes?” He said, stroking his shoulders lightly “There’s no need to do everything right now, we can do it slowly; clean the kitchen a bit, open the windows to ventilate and take some clothes and important things for you that you can leave at my place.” 

“That would be nice, it feels safe with you”

“Look at who is talking, the healing spirit of the forest” said Ten gently, letting go of him to, indeed, start opening windows and drawing back the curtains to let the house breathe and get some fresh air. 

Taeyong nodded, drying the wetness of his last tears with the sleeve of his sweater.

“Okay, I’ll go to the kitchen and throw everything that’s spoiled away. Please, can you pack my toilet bag? It’s in the bathroom” 

Ten nodded and complied with it, heading to the bathroom to help his boyfriend out in the task of moving from that hard situation. 

He was somewhat familiar with the stuff that Taeyong stored in the bathroom, since he had shared that place with him for two weeks, after all. There were the typical things that people keep in their shopping list, such as shampoo, body gel, conditioner and a toothbrush but also, the mirror was in the shape of a cabinet and Ten, of course, hadn’t take a specific time of his routine in the house to lurk that far into personal items. 

He wasn’t so surprised about the content, knowing Taeyong, but it was more complex than he expected from the boy that only went to town for strictly necessary items. There was a fancy bottle of expensive perfume, quite enticing with the tones, if Ten had to say so; then sunscreen, bb cream, a few different tones of chapstick gathered in a small transparent box together with a black eyeliner brush and a small box of shimmery shadow, a funny amount of cream post and a half empty bottle of water based lube with chocolate flavor. 

He laughed internally with how his bold move still carried his sweet tooth, but he tossed it inside the cute pouch with colorful scribbles where Taeyong seemed to carry his toiletries, with the makeup, toothbrush set, and the very specific hair products that made his hair look soft. 

With that, the little bag had all the basics and some extra spice, so he knew it would be fine and easy to carry, leaving the toilet to find Taeyong again. 

He peeped into the kitchen, but he seemed to be done with the cleaning there, which wasn't weird, since Taeyong only stored the perishable food for the week and always collected what he was going to eat in the day to avoid waste. 

Then he moved to the dormitory, where he expected to find Taeyong packing his clothes, but the truth is that the cherry haired dokkebi was sitting on the wooden floor with his legs crossed, holding the page of an open book, big and dusty like the pile of three other volumes by his side. 

Ten knew from himself that he was stealthy, but he tried to make at least a bit of noise as he approached him and fitted the toiletries pouch into Taeyong's bag to not scare him due to his emotions running high that day. 

"You want to take books with you? I can make some space in a shelf if you need" 

"Baby, how hard it's for you to change?"

Ten frowned, thoughtful, sitting in front of him with the book between them. It was an old looking volume, prettily decorated in every page, with very appealing flower motifs and a stylized Korean font that was hard to read for Ten.

"Change?" 

"From this form to the other, and then back to this"

"Depends on how fast I change back and forth and if I do it many times in a short space of time. It takes me energy, because every form is connected with different states of mind, but it's not too bad if it's not an exhausting day" 

"And you have two tails?" Ten nodded slowly, not really getting where Taeyong was going, but he was dead quiet seeing the older one ask him questions without tearing his eyes from the text, finger keeping the pace of his read. 

"Yes, I am still young" he said a bit bashful "What are you reading, Taeyong?" 

"I lived with my grandmother until she passed away, she had a huge hunger for knowledge so she collected a lot of books about the forest and the creatures that were thought to live here. It doesn't matter if it's a book of tales or real compendiums, she liked to have them. This is a bestiary from the 15th century that collects information about dokkaebi in this area, when I saw it I thought… it may say something useful for our situation. But you said I should ask you about yourself so I'm… I'm asking you" 

"That's good" he said, patting his knee gently and giving him a small smile as encouragement for him. "I'll answer if I can. What else?" 

"Yes… what happens to your kind when you get nine tails?"

"It's hard to tell, there are foxes that die before getting nine tails, but it's supposed to be the greatest expression of knowledge and power. The closer spot to be divine, maybe" 

"The number of your tails, does it only grow when you get older?"

"No, it's not exactly like that. Age doesn't matter, it's determination or… or something. It has to do with mind" 

"So you could get nine tails despite being young" said Taeyong, staring at Ten finally, his eyes deep and dark with the focus that made him look so charismatic and relentless. 

There was a tiny drizzle of intent dancing in his pupils. 

"Baby… that would be really, really, really difficult for me to achieve" he said concerned. "Starting by the fact that I don't know how"

"I know…" he sighed, about to close the book to toss it in his bag too, nonetheless, Ten held his hand and avoided it, looking at his eyes tenderly, caressing his wrist with all the comfort he had learned that a touch could drag into someone. 

"What does it say?" 

"Ten, I would never ask you for something like this"

"I know, I know you wouldn't. But what if I want to learn the options?" 

Taeyong pressed his lips on a line and turned the book a little so Ten could read the text as he pointed and explained the lines. 

The page was showing a big illustration of a white majestic wolf surrounded by flames, standing on a high cliff and looking to the sky. The title said it was a guardian spirit of the forest.

"It's… you" whispered Ten quietly, mesmerized with the beauty of the wolf, but then his eyes shifted to check the text.

"If I have my wolf form to guarantee the safety of the forest and... if dokkaebi can have an almost divine form… I wonder how much it would take me to turn like this and make everyone move from the forest base." 

"Oh" said Ten, understanding what his pink-haired boyfriend was saying, finally. "You think it's the kind of moment to use the tools we have been given to fix this mess…"

"Me. I am I talking about me. I don't ont want to drag you in my problems"

"This forest is not yours only" retorted Ten with a steady counterpoint that left Taeyong's lips parted in silence, shocked to the bones. "I told you already. I'll tell you again if you please it. This time you have to let me help you. So what is the idea?"

"Maybe… it's time to show the true potential of this place to outsiders"

"Honestly, it doesn't sound crazy, I don't know why I didn't think about that earlier. I guess humans had the chance to be resonated with the peaceful form of us but now, what is left?"

His shoulders sunk lower than before, sigh leaving him in front of the crooked gesture of Taeyong, eyes really big and adorable. 

"I don't know, how would that help, anyways?"

"Well, a wild wolf would scare them for a while but a big, white wolf that is exactly like the ones their ancient legends portray would keep them away definitely"

"Why?"

"Because it's something they can't comprehend, Yongie" answered Ten, still playing with the other boy's fingers. "And when you don't know something, and you need to keep yourself safe from it but don't know how to face it, I guess that's the source of everyone's fear. It's in every creature's nature to fear the unknown." 

"You are so well spoken, fox" Ten chuckled, retiring his attention from his face to hide his flattered expression somewhere around the room. 

Taeyong smiled more because of his reaction, closing the book and pulling it aside to take it home. 

"It's your grandma that collected a beautiful library, not me" 

However, when his eyes went back to the older one, the latter's expression wasn't that bright, and his face was tilted up to the ceiling, eyes closed in a soundless moment of reflection.

Ten pursed his lips, closing the distance between them that had been occupied by the book, making his knees clash with Taeyong's. The fox's hands cupped his face carefully, looking at the crystal-like drop that hung from his lashes threatening to fall. 

"Yongie" he sighed softly. 

The name really made him soften when he said it, leaving him no option back to open his eyes and look back at him, sniffing quickly to prevent a leak over his face. 

"We can try it out if you decide that it's the correct thing to do, and if you decide it's not, then we can search-"

"What if it doesn't work? What if I can't do what my nature says I am supposed to do?"

"Don't underestimate yourself like that and… it's okay to fail. The results are not everything all the time" he made a pause to let his words sink in Taeyong while he looked at his eyes and tried to control himself. He was scared, and nervous, and Ten knew it was awful to feel like that. "Breath for me, Yongie" 

He breathed in deeply.

"Is that… I just don't understand why some humans are so committed to destroy everything in their way" he uttered. "And it hurts me" 

"I know, but here we are, fighting back. Isn't that what matters?"

He nodded. His hands rested on Ten's knees as he propped himself closer to kiss him. 

He was definitely growing used to those displays of affection peppered across his entire day, he couldn't stop doing it. 

"Hey, Ten" he called when he pulled back, throwing the fox back to reality after a moment. "Can you show me now, please?"

"What do you want to see, baby?" Asked Ten intrigued. 

"See you change?" 

“I can’t do nine tails now, I have to find out how”

“It doesn’t matter, I want to see how pretty you are, I still haven’t had a lot of time to see how the fox is with calm, there has always been something going on”

Ten chuckled with his eyes on Taeyong, fascinated with the cuteness he could put in everything he did. 

The older one almost gasped scared when Ten let all his weigh fall backwards, as if he was about to collapse on the wooden floor, but instead, his eyes got that different color like ambers, lids painted with fresh red paint and the tiny sparkles of light floating around him to take his human form away and let the small, graceful fox appear in front of him with a funny twist around himself. 

He stopped to stare at him, almost posing like a tiny model, flaunting his glossy, pearl-like fur and the beautiful red pattern of his face, faintly glowing with an almost imperceptible pulse. 

He gave him a gesture with his head, as if he was asking him, all conceited, how he looked. 

"Gorgeous" breathed Taeyong out, reaching his hands towards him.

He did it slowly so Ten could approach carefully if he wanted, maybe even sniff his palm to make himself sure of his surroundings, but as expected, he passed above all of that and directly scrubbed his head against Taeyong's palm, emphatically, making the older one smile and scratch his head. 

He got the most enchanting eyes, just as he had in his other form. 

As he kept petting him, Ten seemed to lean further onto him, so keen, slowly closing his eyes. 

“Okay, okay” he said, giggling and opening his arms, letting Ten climb onto his lap, paws resting on his chest for support as his face peeped up towards his, leaning over him to lick his face. 

He caressed the animal carefully, pressing his thumb alongside his small face, on the center of its forehead where he seemed to enjoy more and fall an inch closer into dreams. He touched the bright red lines that decorated his face too, almost with a scientific curiosity, since it looked like paint but it was definitely a natural pattern of his fur. 

Ten gave him a quiet encouragement to keep working his hands upon him in the form of a purr. 

His fingers wounded in his hair, trailing down on his back with a soothing motion. It was unusual to interact with him in that version of his shape, but he tried to figure out the special spots to stroke, thinking about his own body when he turned into an animal. 

"Can I touch your tails?" Ten moved on his lap, hovering and lying comfortably on his crossed legs. The fluffy white couple of tails of the fox flared up and moved from side to side slowly. Taeyong looked at his eyes, conversing with him in a different way. “Yes? Is that a yes?” 

He stroked them carefully, just in case he misinterpreted the answer, letting them run between his fingers as Ten purred a bit louder. 

For a while he stopped with everything, he let his world have a moment of rest in which he kept taking care of the small fox falling asleep on his lap, the pace of his heartbeat slowing a little bit. 

And although he knew he would have to return to the piece of life where they were responsible, sooner or later, he was really thankful for the little space of peace, like a refuge to catch his breath. 

He took the books into the bag, shaking away the slumber that creeped in his mind with the low purring coming from the fuzzy creature in his lap, planted a little smooch on the top of his head, between his ears and then stood up, crossing the bag on his chest and carrying his half asleep fox back home.

Is not like he was planning to wake him up and bother him while he was so calm. They had time until he reached the town, it wasn't bad to let him rest on his arms for a while, in the intimate embrace of the forest.


	14. Don't  go beyond the wall

"I'm thinking about opening a YouTube channel. Or an instagram account, what do you think that fits me better?" 

Ten looked up from the old volume that Taeyong had brought home and he was reading, sitting on his desk from the past… who knows how many hours, accompanied by his ipad, full of stickers. A pencil case was also on the table, splattered with no real order across that endless researching season and the scribbles here and there. 

Taeyong was sitting in front of him, on top of the table with one leg under his butt, comfortable clothes on and phone in hand, scrolling to what he supposed it would be the signing up page of any of those apps. 

It was almost as if they had switched spots. Maybe their humor just stained the other like subtle brushstrokes all over the place. 

He was looking at Ten, enjoying the sweet discovery that the younger one looked really good when he was focused. It seemed like a part of him that was hidden to his eyes, locked, and now he couldn't stop seeing it when he stared at him, working in some of his designs or filling up papers with his notes. Even the round glasses that he needed to see correctly, seemed to fall with a beautiful note on the bridge of his nose, and his tongue stuck out slightly to brush the bottom lip. 

“What?” giggled Ten surprised “Did I let you talk with Winwin for too long? Some days ago you barely cared about getting an updated phone, I almost had to convince you to buy it so I could text you” 

“I know, but I have been exploring social media” he admitted, almost embarrassed about that sentence, for some reason. But there was Taeyong leaning on his palm, playing with the long hair on the back of his head, winding it around his finger, keeping his attention on the blonde haired boy. “There are a lot of channels with interesting and pretty content, it seems so relaxing."

"Oh no, you have found the worst. Lovely humans" joked Ten.

"I want to grow a small garden, take care of it and share it with people”

“A botanical channel?”

"Yeah, I want to give tips about growing plants, arranging tiny gardens, and those things. They could use it to take care of nature better... and I'd name it something like 'PlanTY' or 'Tyong'sGarden' or something like that"

"Could you get any cuter?" 

“More? I don’t know, I am pretty cute now” said Taeyong with a warm cackle. 

Ten nodded and laughed as well, looking at the table.

“Yes, that’s a fair answer. So… about your Tyong’sGarden, I think YouTube is better for that format. But… you are going to need some practice cutting and editing footage into videos, tho. I guess you could ask Kun, he is pretty good at it. I can lend you my pc when you need it, until you get something better, just… don’t break it please, I need it for work” 

Taeyong smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically, ripping a glance of endearment from the fox.

“Thank you, I promise I’ll take care of it until I get one for me”

“Where did this idea come from, anyways?” asked the youngest, going back to the notes he was taking in his ipad as he kept going through one of the few Taeyong’s grandma’s volumes that they had taken home. 

“I saw some people doing it and I wanted to try it too, it looks fun and interesting. I feel like I have been doing things very far from… socializing, and this would help me feel closer with people. And… I think… it would also help me returning home”

“Oh…” said Ten, stopping a little over the text to pay attention. "Returning home" 

“I mean, I’d still come here and spend time with you like now, and you can also come over when you want” explained the wolf, understanding where Ten’s reluctance was coming from. In fact, as he said that, Ten’s expression softened and his breath came out easier to keep writing as they conversed. “But I hope to keep my family’s cabin in check. Since I have a small kitchen garden in the back, I could do a lot of things there”

Ten nodded, giving him the reason “If you want more content, you can keep some planters here. This house could use some green” 

“Really?”

“Hm, yeah. But don’t rely on me, I’d probably forget to water them” 

"Or water them too much" joked Taeyong.

"Is that a thing?"

He looked at him between horrorized and amused "Of course it's a thing, you can drown plants. You definitely need me here to take care of your yet nonexistent plants" 

"So you'll come often, right? You can't let me ruin your planter"

"Of course I will-" Taeyong stopped a little, noticing Ten's sneer, so quiet and foxy as only a fox could be. 

Of course he knew plants could be drown. 

Taeyong pointed a might finger at him, but no words came out against his mischievous chuckle, eyes back to the book once more. 

"I got it my way, didn't I?" 

"And when not?"

"Is it my fault? You like me too much" 

"It's unfair, you know how to bend facts in your favor. If I could do the same you would want mercy" 

"Don't play sassy now" he trailed off. "Or I won't take the very pretty candids of my very pretty boyfriend in his gardens. It would be a pity, in my mind I planned them to look great" 

"Sassy? Me? I must have gotten it from someone" laughed Taeyong, playing around and, in fact, dripping sass. 

Even so, his boyfriend wasn't laughing as much, focused on the lecture. 

He put down his phone and stared at him for a while, quiet and serious behind the round, black frame of his glasses, sweater matching them with the color and the v collar open to show his beautiful pearl, shining and pulsing over his chest with an especially strong light that day, as if it had been engorged.

He was perfectly attractive in any possible way for Taeyong, he could have been there looking at him for hours. 

His eyes were dark and intense as they scrutinized the paper and his hair soft and pale as the strands reached out over his foreheads trying to touch his lashes. 

Whatever Taeyong was going to say next started melting on the tip of his tongue, going away and finding a much stronger distraction for himself, as he watched Ten's expression changing while he moved his eyes across the paper whilst his body leaned over the table with a concentrated attention that had Taeyong wondering what was the mystery of that paragraph for having him so many time without flipping the page. 

He couldn’t tell if the fox had changed the page since Taeyong had arrived at the corner he called his studio, and that, actually, concerned Taeyong a little. Maybe he had spent hours there while the older one went on his deserved morning stroll to get fresh-baked bread, a thing he had traded for his morning harvesting walks. 

His focus for working was definitely outstanding, and the frown had appeared between his eyebrows, weary to some extent, enough to make Taeyong react. 

“Ten” he called, softly, with a compassion that made the younger return the stare with a note of apology in his eyes, knowing well that he was overworking and overthinking again although Taeyong told him to take it slow. “You look tired”

“I am fine, baby” he said, trying to excuse himself, but Taeyong hummed uncontent. 

“You are always fine, according to you, and I know it’s not always true. Tell me you haven’t skipped sleeping hours because of this book” The fox looked at him for a moment too brief that let Taeyong know the answer quite quickly. “Ten! Come on, get off it for a while. Let's… watch a movie ”

“I can’t” he murmured. 

“Yes, you do. You can’t force yourself to infinite hours of working”

“No, listen” said Ten, rigid, flicking his tongue over his dry bottom lip and adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose. He gestured with his hands over the open spread of the volume, where the extension of text filled everything with conglomerated characters except from the place that was occupied with a ten centimeters wide illustration of a human body, radiating some kind of light and with a map of spots over it “I have found this pages about the changing nature of shape-shifters” 

“Oh…” 

They looked at each other, shortly, in silent understatement of their context. 

“According to this text, shape-shifting consists in connecting with the source of power that emanates from your spirit. You and I can change our external form, but the core of energy keeps being the same inside, right?” Taeyong nodded, listening tightly to what his boyfriend was explaining, finally looking like they were about to achieve something. “The procedure to fully develop a form of our body that approaches a divine state depends of our way to view the outside world, that’s what this says."

"The outside? What does that even supposed to mean?"

"Well, after thinking a lot, I suppose that the clue is to accept that we are a part of the same source of power instead of living with it in a shared plane”

"Excuse me? So that would be us being a part of the forest and not his habitants… like a extension of the forest in wolf form?”

“No, bigger. The forest is a part of the source that has gathered a lot of spiritual energy but the pulse… is in the city too, in the people here, and inside us. Everything has, in some extent, the spark but in our case, we are aware of it enough to cultivate it”

Taeyong took a deep breath in, trying to wrap his mind around Ten’s words. 

"Is that so?" 

For many years of his life, a lot of them alone and yet beautifully spent, some moments too brutal upon his emotions, he had never thought about that point of view. He never betrayed or abandoned the forest but he had definitely forgotten that he was part of something more. He had been so buckled down into the state of the woodlands that were his home, that he had forgotten that taking care of the rest of life forms was also important. 

The realization jabbed through his heart, damaging his vision of himself as someone that tried his best to make everyone happy and keep everything in harmony. 

Ten’s hand closed on the edge of his shirt, reaching for him across the table with a gaze of apprehension. 

“Hear me out, Taeyong” The way he said it to him almost swept him off his feet. "It's gonna be fine" 

Even when he had cried from stress, had racked his brain with him to help him, had mourned the loss and hurted with him; Ten sounded stoic, he sounded sweet for him. He saw how he tried everyday to deliver what he had promised to him, that he would help him. 

The wolf was tumbling down again, just wishing he had been in a different way although he knew he couldn’t go back and tell himself how to do better. 

He knew he lacked style in the way he cried, that he didn’t look like people in movies crying all collected and beautiful, but he let the tears roll down with a rawness to his aspect, all the feelings boiling under his skin and trespassing into the salty drops plunging from his lash line.

The tremble on Ten’s hand steadiness around his clothes quite documented the bitter feeling running through the fox veins. 

“It’s not your fault, you know that. You said it yourself, you can be held responsible for the awful choices of clueless people” 

“But I was supposed to know this and avoid the situation turning as bad as it is now, how could I ignore the thing I was born for?” he said sniffing into his sleeves. 

“Because this shouldn’t be necessary. For years, decades, centuries… humans behaved, and our kinds adapted to other functions. It shouldn’t be necessary that you have to bite someone to tell them they shouldn’t slit their limb, it shouldn’t be necessary that I drag people in front of their couple so they feel shame for cheating on them.”

With this, Taeyong started sobbing harder on his hand with the sniffing sounds of his breath, and Ten couldn't hold it up for longer, getting up with such energy that he almost knocked the chair, wrapping his arms around Taeyong’s waist so he could make himself invisible from the world coiling on Ten’s knit pullover. 

The blonde faced the ceiling, his face creased, lip shivered, and his eyes closed while his heart sank. 

“I am here” he murmured, voice quivering, not really knowing a script for situations like that one, just hoping he did well enough for the wolf. “I am going to be here until everything is done, please don’t cry, it breaks my heart to see you crying like this”

Taeyong swallowed air profusely, calming his breath to pull Ten back from his shoulders.

He saw his pitiful state reflecting in Ten’s glasses for a brief second, but he ignored it, enforcing himself to be brave. 

“Shape-shifting. What else do you have to tell me? I am listening to you, you have worked so hard to help me and I’m going to try to do my best with the opportunities that come my way”

“Taeyong…”

“Really, I am ready to listen, I am just… when I don’t understand myself well I cry, but it’s fine, I just need to get it off my chest”

“You sure?”

“One hundred percent. Please, I need to restore the peace of the forest I… want my garden channel and my boyfriend taking pictures of me. I need calm for that” 

Ten pressed his lips with a comforting and worried smile. 

“The way is to understand how everything is pieced together in our world. For example, our place in it and the necessity that there’s now for us to change into a very strong form so the power of our energetic field expands enough to cover a task with 'celestial relevance'. With that… and a good stretch of energy, we could end all of this. If what I read it’s true” 

The pink haired one went to pick up the pearl that was nested close to his face, against Ten’s collarbones, treating it with a careful gesture that let it rest secure over his palm. The tact really appeared to be burning with a different heat and a brighter shine. 

“I believe it’s true”. He looked at him in the eyes. “Let’s do it." 

"Let's do it, then"

"But… I don't know how to bring it out… I don't know where I'm hiding the potential I am supposed to have" he sighed, rubbing his temple in hesitation. He stared at Ten, whose eyes were returning the gaze with a strange and untamed something just lingering under the surface, so unknown as a shadow in the woodland at night "Help me…”

It was not a moment to answer him verbally, because Ten considered it was impossible at the moment they were living. He had always had a big mouth, but suddenly, he felt speechless. There were too many meanings and sensations traveling his skin to stop and try to put them into words. 

He just pushed Taeyong closer to him and covered his lips with a mellow, slow, scorching kiss. One of those kisses that he had stopped making about battling someone else into defeat and had become the way he seeked for more of the moist and heat that Taeyong put into him. 

Ten’s voice was a bit hoarse when he pulled back a little, murmuring over his wet lips with that tilt on his voice. A key of that sentiment of being a step ahead.

“Are you sure you want to-”

Taeyong closed his hand around the pearl, eagerly pulling Ten back to his lips from the silver chain around his neck and forgetting about the question. 

His breath burned over the fox’s lips when he exhaled his worries out, eyes half closed and unable to rise in a moment of passion mixing with all his dismays. 

He was so shaken deep inside, emotionally exposed about too many things. But then there was a stirring at the bottom of his stomach, wanting to be close to him, to touch him, to make the action take it away.

He wanted to feel comforted, all the huddled against him that he could, arms closing around his neck and legs lacing behind his hips. 

Ten looked into his eyes, trying to read the quiz-like film he got in his pupils before leaning down to kiss him deeply, sucking his lip gently, with passion and desire filtering into that swelling spirit that was building up to ignite at any moment to ravage the unapologetically human folly in their forest, becoming keenly aware of all that he was and all that he wanted.

Goosebumps covered Ten’s skin as they kissed, pressing their tongues against one another, feeling each other's soft lips, slow. He had always been hasty, or more than that, accelerated, madly committed to blow things up, but Taeyong made him want it in slow motion, feeling everything strongly and drop by drop.

Almost unwittingly, the wolf’s fingers were sent to explore under the edge of Ten’s sweater, feeling the soft skin on his tiny waist, caressing the way downward, lower, until his fingers were dancing above the middle of his pants.

His breathing quickened, sending a clear message to Taeyong about his needs. 

His hand was warm, caressing a line up in the center of his chest, his skin full of goosebumps with the gentle touch, making him nervous and eagerly waiting for the next move of what seemed to an infinite foreplay for him. 

The youngest allowed Taeyong to feel him up more freely, getting rid of his sweater. He arched his back, treating the eldest to tense the string of his resolve. 

Taeyong’s fingers rested on his throat, and for one moment, Ten gasped and threw his head back to allow him the space he needed for what he thought he would do, blonde and long hair framing his face like a angelic halo, but the wolf just fell upon his mouth to intertwine their tongues with a wet and sloppy kiss. 

He was so deep into it, into his taste and the dreadful burn in his pants, awakening when it brushed against Taeyong’s thigh, that he couldn't help but moan at the great feeling conquering his body. 

He hooked his finger on the band of Taeyong’s pants, pulling towards him until their hips crashed again. 

Finally, he was able to stop imagining and start feeling, right away on the spot, because Taeyong was undoing the button of his pants and pulling the zipper down, having room to slip his hand under the material and take him on his hand palming him rough enough to draw another groan from the fox, getting harder, needing more. 

He kept looking into his eyes, soaked with desire, mesmerized, as he massaged him.

His eyes squeezed, shut in longing, needing and wanting Ten to fuck him right in the table. And yet, instead, the fox gave him a quiet kiss like no other he had given him, so hushed hot and breathy, so slow it made him hiccup. 

"Come on, you say where do you want me" whispered Ten with such sensuality that Taeyong's hair bristled.

All his body trembled, and his tongue snapped with the words that pulsed through his blood system. 

"On your knees" 

A shiver secretly descended across Ten's spine. 

He had never been so pleased fucking the will out of someone. 

His body settled without complaints, his knees on the floor between Taeyong's legs, and his eyes filled with something that made the wolf's world turn around. He pulled down from Taeyong sweatpants as the latter was still sitting on the table and having a severe raise of temperature watching him there for him. 

The leaping of his heart was immediate, with Ten planting another kiss on his naked thigh. The act made his hardness twich inside the confinement of his underwear, overwhelmed by the feelings of his heart that shot up seeing Ten commit to his only pleasure. 

His long, blonde hair was tickling him as he deposited kiss after kiss over him, as if tracing a wavy line up to his crotch, which had Taeyong closing his fists around the edge of the desk and clenching his jaw not to cry out. He was eager to feel Ten'Ten's lips and tongue, and his heart speeded up only with the thoughts of it, almost not believing that he was given that from the fox.

It was going to be his first doing that with him, and the anticipation did his part in turning him on, more and more, as his lips approached his crotch. 

Taeyong let his hand rest upon the crown of his head, stroking his hair, lovely, tangling his fingers with the pale golden locks of hair as Ten licked his bulge over the clothe of his pants, wetness soaking through and sparkles running through his veins. 

A sigh left him, more than enamoured of the boy giving him his all to make him feel good, to make him feel loved in a moment like that. 

When his mood only hit to tell him that he had failed, Ten quickly offered him comfort with his words and his acts. 

Then, another sigh, letting the youngest pull down his underwear, having played with it enough to build complete hardness on his length. 

He grasped him in his hand, the other travelling to his balls to trace a little naughty finger over the zone, making Taeyong squirm. But Ten didn't lose focus, he started slowly stroking his shaft gently, slowly, letting the natural wetness that Taeyong was delivering spread, helping him feel his senses amplify, sending him through the roof when he squeezed it and dragged the stroke back.

There wasn't a way for Taeyong to discern if Ten was being a tease or just giving him all. 

He leaned in closer, Taeyong could see the pout of his lips as he kissed the top lightly, letting one hand hold him and the other hold on his thigh to then stick his tongue out to lick the underside all the way up. 

He made eye contact with Taeyong as his length parted his lips, making the eldest's mind go dizzy and his eyes run away to the wooden table, moan breaking the silence of the apartment. 

Ten's tongue gently grazed the tip, glistening in the morning sunlight as it got wet with his saliva. His cock twitched in anticipation as his mouth took him in, slowly sliding down.

The hum of pleasure enticed Ten from his core to the outside, sucking and tightening his lips so that Taeyong could swell more, with his knuckles white from the strength holding the edge of the table and another of his choked up noises. Yet he let his legs open wider so his boyfriend could have better access, taking it in deeper, moving his head up and down as he began to swirl his tongue around him harder. 

The fox's lust bubbled inside him, hearing how Taeyong was emitting a small "ah" everytime he stroked him. He wanted to listen to him go louder, he needed it.

The sight of his pink little tongue on the head of his dick, as his other hand stroking his balls, was really, really hot, sending Taeyong into a worked up blush with all his body burning. 

His fingers tangled with his blonde hair as he sucked the salty leak, tongue flat, still working the rigid hotness with a soundless hum drowned by the higher sound of Taeyong moaning, throwing his head back for just a second to then return to look down, pulling Ten's bangs out of the way.

He stared at him carefully, with his eyes closed, his long lashes brushing his skin and his breath rushing. 

"Oh, Ten!" He wasn't capable of forming any other phrase but the fox liked that. He loved hearing his own name cried out in pleasure by none other than Taeyong. 

He bucked his hips, breathing heavier, so the youngest sucked in harder, wrapping his tongue around him severely. Taeyong's thighs were trembling, brushing against Ten's cheeks.

As Ten looked up, his eyes appeared shiny and glassy, collecting liquid lust on them, but Taeyong had surrendered to close his really tight, throw his head back and hold tight on the table. 

"I am going to cum, Ten, I can't…" 

The fox didn't stop to answer with words, he moved down faster instead, moaning around him, really into the action, almost eager for him to finish in his mouth. 

He speeded up with each trip up and down, making the apartment drown in wet noises. 

His cock was throbbing, he could feel it. 

Ten shut his eyes tighter than ever with any other person, already visualizing the feeling of hot white liquid on his tongue, moaning so hard that the vibration made Taeyong's whole body tighten up, pleasure loading up in his body, ready to explode.

"I love you" he moaned, his body spamed hard once, and his erection twitched, Ten intently sucking hard on the head of his dick while tightening his grip around him and pumping to use up all the pleasure gathering up in his body. "No one makes me feel the way you do" 

The shock was hard, and he immediately felt the pulse of his cock inside his wet, smooth mouth, spilling his seed messily as Ten held Taeyong inside, sucking until Taeyong's body was exhausted and swallowing everything as it came like the waves. 

He pulled out, catching his breath, leaning on Taeyong, cheek pressed on his thigh, hot like a pan with his lips shining wet with the sun that came in from the window. 

He took a sharp breath, and stared at Taeyong.

"No one?" 

The eldest's expression turned into a painting of incredulity. Ten looked so immensely soft and fragile, so deeply smitten, to the point that his countenance seemed to acquire gentler lines. 

When he answered him, he realized that he was just talking under his breath, so intimately sharing the moment with him only.

"No, no one in the present or in the past has make me feel the same way that you do" 

Ten raised up, limbs wrapping around the pink haired wolf to kiss his lips as the only answer he knew for that. 

He could have died there, in his arms, feeling like the most lucky, happy and powerful being of the Earth.

A tiny hiss left his lips when Taeyong leaned in closer, grazing his crotch with his thigh and making him remember that he was desperately aroused. He dragged his hips against Taeyong, groaning and gasping with the rubbing of their fronts, feeling exposed, but not in a harmful way, just with an intensified sensitivity that made all his skin ablaze. 

"Touch me" he cooed, under his breath, his hands softly taking over Taeyong to guide them down on his back, letting them rest at his butt. 

Taeyong gulped to moist his throat, fingers kneading Ten's flesh with the harmonic sounds of the wolf as accompaniment. 

He jumped off the table and crushed on his lips, still half blinded after the high. Being swift in the way his fingers unbuttoned his shirt, he sent it pooling on the floor. He made Ten spin on his heels, pressing his body against his from behind, getting him to lean on the desk, one hand holding around his waist, and the other one doing the opposite path, moving up from his thigh to his crotch. 

With only the simplest brush upon his clothed erection, he trembled and mewled. 

Taeyong massaged him vividly, driving the blonde crazy, moaning resoundingly on the spot. His eyes had closed to the sweet rubbing of his weakness and his head tilted back on his shoulder, his lips parted in a silent whimper that made Taeyong’s knees weak with the view. 

“Just like that”

The youngest’s hips moved against his hand, and when he angled his head back to see Taeyong and his eyes opened, they rose at him with the amber color of his fox irises and the pretty red lines that always fascinated Taeyong punctuating them. 

He looked like the illustration of those fantasy books full of legends, just as beautiful as a painted of some human's fever fantasy. 

He looked…

"You look divine" groaned Taeyong against his neck, holding his hip with his free hand. 

He could see everything going on, from Ten’s gracious pose to the enchanting glance he very much loved to see, dripping charm from every inch of his sharp lines. There were twirling speckles of light shining between the blonde curls of his hair and connecting with him through the ancient link of their spirits, more powerful than ever, almost as if Ten’s determination soaked through his skin when they touched and insufflated him with power. 

It felt like a part of his heart had been sleeping and it suddenly awakened, telling him to act up and be a little blunter, go straight to the problem to face it.

He couldn't surrender, nor be scared forever, hiding in his dark and secure cabin avoiding confrontation until everything was just a mat of sawdust and ashes surrounding a cold building for tourists. He couldn't know if he would be perfect, but it was his mission. 

His senses were exploding, blowing up his mind and his tact as Ten's fingers traveled up his neck, tangling with his blonde hair as he twisted in Taeyong's hold, giving him the reins. 

Both his hands stopped pampering him and went to his undone pants, letting his jeans slide down so he could have more space to treat him,  revealing the black underwear he had underneath. He could follow the outline of his erection behind the fabric . 

Taeyong had to catch up with the amatory skills, and yet still, telling by his expression he guessed how much Ten was enjoying the teasing, painfully slowly. 

He tugged from his pants too, sliding them down his legs so no more clothes hid him from his eyes that took a moment to look at everything in detail, from top to bottom. 

He had seen him naked before, but they had never taken their time so slowly. 

The wolf wondered briefly if his nipples were just as sensitive as his, taking one between his fingers and fidgeting with it, hearing the deep breath of Ten with the act. 

However, he knew for sure that it wasn't what his fox wanted, watching the way his pointy nails screeched over the desktop's perfect surface. 

He didn't want to make him wait, and moved his hands toward his shaft, carefully sliding his fingers across his skin. 

He heard him inhale sharply when he focused on the tip, rubbing gentle circles and letting him leak, making it easier to slide his hand up and down without hurting him.

"Harder, pup, don't hold back" 

He tightened his fingers around him and heard him groan in response, pushing his flesh up against his fingers as the wolf started pumping it quickly. 

"Am I doing it right?" he asked. 

His faked innocence sounded even more mouth-watering than his real hesitations to the fox, who nodded as well as he could between all the whimpering he had begun making as his body got closer to release. 

"Ugh, shit" Another tug, and another, and another, adding up, going back and forth to work him up, relentless, making Ten feel like his body wasn't his but all for the wolf. "Taeyong"

His eyes were closed, his lips parted with the harsh call of his name on repeat, and meanwhile, the pearl hanging from the silver chain burnt over his skin and pulsed fiercely with all the energy of his soul getting tangled with his love for Taeyong, feeding on it as it grew merciless towards injustice. 

"Do it like you want" enticed the eldest. "Let me see" 

There was a sport inhale and the not-so-human kind of sound that shook the walls of the apartment. 

One after another, several shockwaves of pleasure pounded through every inch of Ten's body, while his cum dripped down and Taeyong worked to make him ride the orgasm, squeezing tight.

"Shit, I feel so vivid right now" said Taeyong with quickened breathing when Ten let go of the table and pulled up his clothes, sitting on the table where the pink haired one had been earlier. 

His legs were shaking, still. 

The fox sat with him, fixing his clothes in place too, looking at his hands to see if the tingling feeling spreading across them had something to do with their aspect. 

"Why do I feel like this?"

Ten still had his head leaning back, finishing catching his breath. As his hair was falling back, the wolf could see the red mask of lines that Ten had going on in his face, not fainting in a flash as they always did to the point he had wondered if he imagined them sometimes. 

The pearl was projecting a severe glow over his skin.

Corresponding to his speculations, Ten swallowed oxygen into his heated up body and looked at him with his slit-like pupils.

"I guess this is the feeling of having too much energy to fit in a small vessel of a body" 

"It's… ready now?"

"You feel ready?"

"I feel scared, but at the same time I am more ready than ever, for some reason"

"Feels good to be a little offensive towards human when they misbehave, uh?" 

Taeyong chuckled. 

"You have questionable methods" 

"But…" pointed out Ten gesturing to the small sets of crescent moon shaped marks on the surface of his desk. "You like them. I make you wanna fight"

"Honestly? My chest feels full" 

"Well…" started the fox, granting Taeyong with one of the most beautiful smiles that he had seen paint his face, sincere, genuine, as he trusted his opinion with all his heart for the first time in forever. "It's going to be a pleasure, then, to see the Spirit of the Forest in front of my eyes"

"May the fox allow me to be the wolf with the most odd pair among human legends?" 

"Of course" giggled Ten with his joke "I'll go with you to the end of the world" 

"Just to the outskirts of the forest will be fine" 

"You first, baby" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip Winwin sharing a wall with these two lmao


	15. Don't  stop believing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the final episode. I know the updates have been close together this week but I'm feeling a bit low and I didn't want to let you guys with an unfinished work. Thank you to everyone that read and left kudos and comments. Special Thanks to Xiujin for following this from the beginning of the idea to the end, and to user Tam10 for reading and commenting every chapter, it was such a rush of energy to keep posting this :)  
> Now I'll let you read!

There was something strange in the tact of the pavement under his paws, but it might be just the way Taeyong was only used to pace in the confines of the forest when flashing that particular form of his. 

Or perhaps it was the fact that it wasn’t exactly that form what he usually was bearing that made the plant of his feet feel a different kind of vibration with every stride in his unyielding run through the city of Busan, with a very pretty and sly nine-tailed fox following right behind. 

It was, apparently, a common knowledge, in times gone by, that a kumiho could tell no lie when it came to a promise. It was a pity that, somewhere among history, humans became forgetful and dismissed their power to help them if they were just kind, because Taeyong had proven that what Ten had promised, he had accomplished. 

First, there was the rock fact that Taeyong had ended up besotted by his charms, even though it hadn’t been with the same technique Ten had at first announced himself to have. And then, the ominous promise that he would help him find a way to help him with the felling in their forest, fulfilled through an incessant brainstorming that had taken them several days and a handful of headaches. Yet Taeyong couldn’t say it was a badly spent time, in fact, it was the opposite. Spending time with Ten and taking things slow, having the most random days and dates with someone he really appreciated, was just so perfect that he could see where all the energy that he had required to snap his shape into that impressive, big, white wolf, had come from. 

He could have used more of it, even, just a couple days more to completely fill the battery bar of his spirit, since he had some kind of dull weariness remaining in his mind and making the muscles of his body get a slight tingle of cramps as he kept running towards the outskirts of his beloved birthplace. 

However, determination and adrenaline made him move fast and with no delay in his reflexes, heart pumping with more fury than anything else when his eyes finally caught the view of the barren again. 

Operators were still gathering there despite the evident lack of flora or… just any pulse of life, making it incomprehensible for both the dokkaebi, since the atmosphere that raised there was so empty and similar to a dark void that it was plain displeasing, just like stepping over a corpse. 

The fire hadn’t helped the space to recover, and the black dust only contributed to the extensive horror. 

In the middle of the charcoal-like patch, Ten's white fur appeared to be even more shiny that it really was when he took the initiative, overtaking Taeyong with a swift and gracile race that made ashes elevate around his paws. 

Taeyong easily knew what he was planning to do, watching his body leap and jump to a high place, upon a tree branch, so he hurried and hid himself behind some of the remaining bushes at the edge of the artificial path created by the truck's wheels. 

With an internal smile, he observed the fox and how his pace became slow and almost arrogant, making just a couple of people turn around to stare at him. They looked in awe, just as shocked as mesmerized, content with themselves in a frozen second in which they thought they were sneaky enough to catch the glimpse of a white fox. 

Taeyong, however, knew that there was no way that Ten was so noisy if it wasn't on purpose. 

Human heads kept turning as a murmur rushed through the crowd of people, telling each other to look there, up in the cedar tree, or just pointing to the creature. They were mostly silent, as if they were avoiding a loud noise that could scare the animal out, which was nonsense for both Ten and Taeyong after the actions that, for days, had been derring of mechanical saws, vehicles and fire alarms. 

Weren't humans so cute in their confusion? 

The staggered rumour then, became more of a nervous clog of hushed conversation, just due to the fox hopping off the branch to run just in their direction, dodging everyone without touching one inch of his fur against human bodies, climbing up to one of those big trucks that were still parked in the field, ready to take the latest fallen trees to the city. 

There he stood, on the edge of the roof, staring down to see, godlike, how everyone had their attention in him. Taeyong got his moment to marvel about his performative talent in action, silhouette shining against the dying sun in the horizon with an almost violent tone when he spread out all nine of his tails like a fan. 

The fox, naturally, didn't lose a trace of his composure while doing all of it, he didn't miss a beat. Nevertheless, the field went into turmoil straight away. 

Some were just too shocked, not believing their eyes, but the majority of operators changed their expression in panic, carefully stepping back and far from the fox that, anyways, only laid there, smug, with his front paws crossed. 

"Is that a…?"

"Dokkaebi"

"A kumiho!" 

The comments splashed from every side of the barren. 

"What do you want!? What should we give you!?" 

"No, no, don't get closer, it may attack us"

That made Taeyong sort of angry. Ten wasn't a bloodthirsty monster and he wasn't either, it was just awful to hear humans claim so when they only tried to save the forest from their dirty hands. 

"Is this forest really haunted!?" inquired someone in a loud voice. "I told you, guys, I told you my grandma said it was haunted. We should fly away!"

"Don't be a coward, is just a fox"

"Just a fox!?" Said someone different. "Look at how it's glowing, count the tails! It’s a ghost!" 

"I told you" added another man, but that time, Ten could discern who was speaking, as the infamous hunter walked forward. He was tall and rather broad, attractive if there had to be something that Ten could accept, and with a stylish haircut that made his dark hair curl with some charm. "This forest has dangerous creatures living in it, we shouldn't be permissive with the fact that they put or friends and families in a threaten" 

"What are you saying, fool!? It is not an animal but a spirit!"

By the time the logger had finished discussing this, Taeyong already knew it was his time to act up, coming out from the bushes to approach the spot where Ten was resting. 

Everyone's faces vanished into terror, maybe mixed with respect, seeing the person-tall wolf that walked in almighty. In his animal eyes there was an important feeling that other animals didn't have. It was wisdom. 

"It's the spirit of the forest!" 

"I thought it was only an old wives' tale!" 

"Clearly not!"

"It can't be!"

He stood there for a second, keeping his chin up to everyone, not showing intimidation. 

Ten's claws resounded against the truck's metallic roof as he descended from it and twirled briefly around the wolf's legs, stopping under him in a sign of clear trust to him, and even lowering his ears a bit like a junior who asks an older brother for help. 

Which meant he wasn't the most dangerous predator of the surroundings. 

Taeyong really could affirm that Ten was an enviable performer. The real Ten would have never been saying ‘help me, Taeyong-hyung’ all pitiful and intimidated with humans, but pushing the line more, he even let out a small whimper, queueing to his very own snarl. It was low, at first, while he made advances towards the nearest person, backing up scared and with his palms up as if he tried to prove his innocence. 

The human Taeyong would have scoffed hard at such irony.

Wolf Taeyong was more fierce, growling at them so they would start moving, packing and leaving as they should have been doing already.

The boy in question, bumped on the other's chest, frightened. "You have pissed them off Jaehyun, retract from your bullshit"

Taeyong heard the name, feeling like he was starting to really feel anger.

He knew what he had done, chasing Ten until he shot him, pursuing him eagerly and offending their environment out of whatever wicked sense of victory he needed to have. He turned his head to stare at Ten for a split second, with a questioning gaze, and the kumiho lowered his ears again, which was enough for him to understand that the gesture meant 'yes, him'. 

When the wolf looked back to the hunter, his wise eyes had turned hatred, his hair was ruffling, and the growl was quite emphatic that time, sending everyone to run and pack but, for a good reason, Taeyong chased after them, just so they could be scared enough. 

It was better to make oneself sure that their little play sunk deep into their knowledge so they won’t have to repeat it again for another bunch of centuries. 

Ten, as well, climbed back up to the roof of the vehicles, jumping fast from one to another with his eyes on the people that hesitated in their way out. They could barely stand his stare dead upon them, and so everyone ended up heading out of the forest with expressions of not allowing themselves to come back for damaging purposes again. Or just for anything, as they started believing in spirits right away, and they knew they had offended them for sure. 

Maybe they could turn back to burn incense and build shrines, thought. 

The way the moon was rising didn't help them with their fear, as if it had anything to do with the force of their soul, already stretched out to the maximum out of emergency. It’s silver shine fell on Ten’s white fur, extremely beautiful. So much that someone mindless of the surroundings would have been unable to tear their eyes from him. 

Taeyong was springing away, mostly toying with people for drama, striking a few men on their way out. He needed to make sure they would feel respect enough to only come back for something harmless, letting the disaster grow back into a beautiful garden of trees. 

But when almost everyone had fled away, he checked where his small fox was, hearing his threatening purr go out of him with will. It only took him an instant to spot Jaehyun trying to sneak closer to him regardless of the way he was crouched and grumbling, baring his teeth. 

The wolf sprinted through the field, announcing his arrival with a raw noise, yet Ten was right when he said that Jung Jaehyun was quite sure and full of himself, giving him a defying frown in return. 

It made Taeyong uite angry and indignated. The human was so foolish that the instinct rushed through Taeyong's veins and whipped out with strength, making the animal leap on him, knocking him over, making him stumble, as his fangs bit on his arm to take him away from him. 

Ten's body jolted, startled and nervous for the proximity to his hunter. 

He felt the wave of heaviness in his human body when he turned back to it with the sparkly snap, trying to get rid of the weariness that nine tails caused on him. He slipped on the truck's front window, hitting his hip against the glass, hissing just slightly and sliding down to the hood with quick breathing. 

Overcoming the dizziness, he tried to fix his hair quickly, looking up to Taeyong. He barely drew blood on Jaehyun, he was just menacing him, keeping his hands away from Ten and giving him a deep look, almost like pointing with his nose the way he needed to take to leave, growling to tell him. 

The hunter looked at Ten too, getting completely shocked that time, magic lasting inside him from the moment he had thrown it all over him in spite and revenge. He blinked fast, trying to piece the complicated puzzle of events together, but it was too big for his limited human comprehension. 

The blonde, so beautiful, gave him a smug glance and half a smile, also tilted his head to the way out with a tilt of amusement to his aspect. 

"Leave" he warned "And tell everyone else in your group to not come again unless it is to withdraw this trucks or pay respect to the Forest Spirit" 

For a moment Jaehyun hesitated, torn between his mesmerized heart and his sense of defense, but Taeyong had run out of patience and calm for that singular individual. With a rapid move and a bounding motion, he came right for him. 

In less than a moment Jaehyun was on his back, soil and dirt cold on his back.

He let out a muffled groan of pain. And is not like he didn't have it coming his way, the wolf was pacing over to him, showing his teeth with rage. He had many things to hold against Jahyun, many faults that clouded his vision and made him understand completely what was the nature of a shape-shifting guardian, burning his energy with a huge flame that turned it into wild force. 

It wasn't a brain for reason at that moment, just a primal sense of spite and scorn. 

He saw the fear creeping on Jaehyun's eyes as he hovered back trying to avoid the wolf, finally. 

"Taeyong" 

Jaehyun tried to dodge the swing coming from his sharp claws, but he wasn't that fast, and his side burned with the swipe, and he tumbled into the dirt. 

"Taeyong, that's enough!" said Ten, who had stepped off the vehicle to get closer to his boyfriend, with an almost singing voice full of grace, the only that could reach his senses through the very thick layer of impulse filling Taeyong. "You don't want to kill him, do you? He is going to be smart enough and leave forevermore" he said, looking severely at the hunter as he pronounced the second half of the statement, making it sure that the stupid idiot nodded vehemently. "Run, you unfaithful fool" 

The wolf blinked, noticing the red blood under Jaehyun's palm, staining his shirt, somewhat torn apart because of him.

Killing him? Oh no, it revolted Taeyong deep in his personality collected at the core of all that spiritual mess, to even think about doing something like that to someone that was just looking at him from the floor with fear, and unarmed. It would take him just a moment to regret it from the rest of his life, and he reminded himself to stay in lane, not letting the wolf take over his senses completely.

He backed up fast and went back to the state where he wasn't more than a human with pink hair. His step back felt unsteady, as if the world tumbled a bit in his eyes, readjusting to the shape. 

He found Ten's dark coloured eyes staring at him proud when he found a pinch of focus to look at his face, lining again with his, in the same height. 

The world was bearing a glow in his eyes that Ten could not trace well, like an apology for losing control just seconds before. 

His lips parted with a sigh. 

"Catch me" murmured Taeyong. 

The fox was absolutely blank, unaware of what his words meant, but it came out clear when Taeyong's eyes started rolling back, eyelids falling close and legs failing him to stand straight. 

Ten's reflexes were swift enough to wrap his arms around his waist before he plunged down on the pavement.

His heart leaped in panic.

"Taeyong" he called, quietly at first, but lacking a response he clutched him to his chest and shook him a bit. "Yongie!" 

His eyes fluttered ever so slightly, to let him know he was trying his best to listen to him, but his body was heavy with the weight of tiredness. 

From the corner of his eye, he caught the glimpse of Jaehyun moving towards him, as if he was going to help him in some way. 

Ten had never growled so hard to someone in his human form, but he couldn't help it, he didn't want him near him or his boyfriend. 

The hunter stepped back, his expression quite shocked with Ten's fierce noise and frown, altogether into the ambience of explosion that was taking over the outskirts.

“It’s not clear to you yet?” he spat to him, resentful. “I am not even human, what are you expecting from me? Run for your fucking life”

He was about to give him a hatred push, but Jaehyun finally reacted and closed his mouth, turning around slowly and in silence. 

The fox, out of panic and fear, held Taeyong's wrist with his hands and carefully balanced him up on his back. Taeyong barely reacted, but he still recognized the sweet scent of his boyfriend, letting his limbs wrap around him to stay up on his hold as he walked. 

His footsteps were almost mute over the few scattered autumn leaves remaining in the empty field as he left Jaehyun behind, frozen by himself. He hurried up to go back to the depths of the forest, where they could hide and heal within their innermost senses. The cold night air was making his throat dry as he inhaled deeper, faster.

He knew what the wolf state was, probably. Something similar to his, all tired and weary from the big effort of letting a big spirit use all the energy of his body. 

It was worthy, he knew for sure that none of the citizens would ever dare to harm that woodland in another dozen of decades. 

Branches were getting in his way, yet welcoming him home with leaves that caressed his cheeks, and under his feet the branches from the fallen trees, dragged inside the vegetation by the rain, cracked.

"Where are we going?" He heard Taeyong ask, faintly against his shoulder, giving him a slight relief. 

"Home"

The wolf seemed to move slightly over his shoulder, burying his face on the crook of his neck.

"Ten… I feel so tired and sleepy"

"Me too, baby" he responded, trying to keep him up for a conversation as he went back to the forest. The stairs on the hill had never seemed so long, as Ten stepped on them with Taeyong on his back. "We can sleep together tonight if you want, let's cuddle and sleep in the cabin with warm blankets, okay?" 

"Sounds great"

"Right? But you have to wait for us to arrive, don't go to sleep without me" 

"Aha…"

“It would be too rude, right?” 

His whisper was too soft for Ten's heart to relax. 

He hadn't lied when he told him he was tired too. In fact, he didn't even know where he pulled the energy to carry him from, because he felt like his eyelids were too heavy and his body moved too slow and sloppy.

It must be so, for he tripped over one step, getting stuck and stumbling with a lethargic fall. 

His knee sunk on the stone stairs of the forest, on which the droplets from his eyes were falling, suddenly, because he was seeing the speckles of light floating around them, elevating from Taeyong's body. 

They were impossible to catch to pull back into him, he would have done it if not. 

Taeyong, quite gently, got back on his feet to relieve Ten, and stumbled slightly as he found a place to sit on the stairs and rest his weary body. 

“Just… a second” said Ten to excuse himself, raising one hand and catching his breath. “Short pause” 

Just a look at the fox's face was enough to know the things that were running through his mind. 

It was shocking to think that, at first, Taeyong hadn't been able to read his doubts simply from his eyes and his expression, since it had become more of an open book later. He wondered if it had anything to do with his spiritual height or just with the way his heart had learned to love him. 

Ten was breathing real slow, his arms crossed over the step and his elbows leaning on the cold stone. A slight tingle just right above his lip made him suspect that his nose was bleeding too. 

Taeyong's lashes fluttered, exhaling a calm, resignated blow of air. "Where do you think I am going to end?"

"Where? We are just going home"

"You are a terrible liar, baby" murmured Taeyong with a lovely smile. 

"You used to believe all the things I said one month ago, even when I lied"

"You were too pretty to be real" he said, reaching out to his face so he could wipe off a tear from Ten's cheek. "It distracted me so much that I couldn't read your feelings well" 

"And it turns out that now you can?" Said Ten with a thread of voice. "Have I stopped being pretty?" 

"Heaven knows that's not it" he said with a funny accent in his gloomy tone. "But I have some other feelings now that go through the exterior layer, you know?" 

“So the first time was for fun” scoffed Ten, making fun of him. “You are not so different from humans after all”

“I have something they don’t have” 

Taeyong, sat on the step of the stairs, looked at Ten and held his hand. His expression was drowsy, eyes only half open and magical, pink, messy hair fluffy around him like a halo. He pulled from his hand, pushing Ten towards him. 

He stumbled upon the last steps of the stairs, to sit closer to him, by his side, almost tangled like two stems of flowers as they tried to hold each other, acknowledging that both of them were so low in stamina. 

Maybe they had been too suicidal with what they had done, Ten had started realizing it with the very quiet beat of his pendant over his chest. It had never been so empty of sparkle. 

The tiny firefly-like sparkles floating around them, under the canopy of leaves, illuminating the scene, may have been not only Taeyong's. 

Somehow, he prefered it to be that way. 

Occasionally, he had said that Taeyong was cute and delicate, but he knew it was him who surely knew that it was far too late for them. And yet he was there, aware of the real world while he held Ten as he closed his eyes, throwing his head back.

It was quiet. Everyone had left, even Jaehyun, so he could hear the peaceful pace of the forest, a pulse that echoed across the place, mingling his heartbeat with Taeyong’s and the blow of wind among leaves. 

Taeyong sensed how Ten’s fingers had reached up for the back of his neck and unclasped the pearl, which he held up to him. It was just a pearl in a silver chain, the glow had faded away in the most part, and only the moonshine created a sparkle on the smooth, round surface. 

“Have it” he whispered. “I know you asked a while ago, I’m slow at replying sometimes. It suits you perfect” 

The older one caught it, tangling his fingers with the silver chain for he had lost the ability to hold it properly and hang it around his neck. 

The pain of tiredness wasn’t barely noticeable, just a cold numbness spreading through him. It hurt him worse that Ten had leaned his cheek on his shoulder and his lashes were gathering fireflies, not a gasp coming out from him to scare them out. 

As the minutes ticked out, he thought about the night. And the day before, and so on until he reached the day when he met the fox and the cycle went to the start to repeat. The images in his mind had every bit of detail to form the picture of the fox and every tune that he remembered of his voice.

His arms clenched around the younger one, while the green of the forest started paling down and becoming blurry, just like the other times when Ten made him lose the focus of his perspective. 

Slowly, it fogged and then; he saw nothing at all. 

The forest around them flickered, and then started lighting up. For human eyes, it might have been imperceptible, but just as if thousands of seeds were falling over the earth, a color shone as the green of trees started becoming brighter, with moss expanding over the trunks and dew kissing the small flowers around the stairs as if the morning breeze had came out way earlier than it should. 

As if everything awakened in a flash, the wind blew stronger too, and the soul of the forest raised up, taking back all the dynamism it had lent to both the dokkaebi on the stairs, dissolving into light sparkles and the smallest buds and white flowers in the whole region, covering the stone steps where later on, people would plant a shrine and learn a proper sense of kinship and veneration that they had been lacking for centuries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, if you have the time, leave some comments and tell me your impressions so I can know what you guys think and keep writing better in the future.


	16. BONUS: Moonshine (sequel, one shot)

It was the third full moon since Ten had opened his eyes again.

Everything had been like a dream, a very pleasant and euphoric dream that you suddenly wake up from, under the pouring rain, laid on the forest's muddy soil all alone. 

He wondered… how much time he had spent in a faint.

For a moment, for a second, Ten gave the credit of his memories to that.

The one who he had called Taeyong was just the personification of his comatose dream after being chased and shot by one of those hunters from the city flaunting all his greed, just the projection of his innermost feelings spilling out and becoming raw after bottling them up for too long, and craving someone that made him change in the slightest. 

It was only in the moment that he was able to get up and stepped back into the outskirts’ vast, sterile barren that he could understand that all of his memories were real. 

His knees felt weak then, and his head was too heavy and yet too light at the same time. He was disoriented and, more than anything, bearing a weighty heart in the absence of someone he used to know. 

He ran back up the hill, and he began to look for him.

All night long, he called his name, getting louder with every new try. So much, that people in town thought it was an electric storm again. He called him until many heads were turned in his direction with questioning eyes, but the attention was just from the squirrels, rabbits and fireflies, going down to land on him as if they could comfort him. 

Maybe they also missed him and needed relief like Ten, but he didn't have the heart to stay there and encourage them, so he left at the break of dawn. 

Over the days, it hadn’t gotten any lighter. It was just that Ten had learned how to lift the freight an inch higher from the floor. 

It had been eating him alive, making him wonder where the line between a blessing and a monumental curse was.

Under the sky of his new cycle of life, the world no longer seemed flexible in the way it used to be, it didn’t have the same glow and it didn’t bend comfortably under the pressure of his supernatural eye. 

He wasn’t in the mood for barely anything that wasn’t curling inside his bed and seeking for a piece of his obliterated warmth in the cold apartment, in the middle of the winter. All he was able to feel, lately, was the misery of departure, haunting him like dogs of prey. 

He had tried to find him, but he failed. 

He had searched for a way to understand what was going on in his world, reading through the leftovers volumes of Taeyong's grandmother that were left on his desk. They weren't of any help either, just a bunch of bestiaries, an herbarium and a book explaining spiritual practices. And when Ten tried to do a little bit more than that, he noticed that, apparently, there was something within himself that wasn’t falling in place as it should, and the pain sunk in him worse. 

After all, the problems orienting in the forest appeared, and finding the way towards the cabin became impossible. He could barely find the pond. 

It pained him to even think about the wolf, but it was something he couldn’t avoid because the decision was far from coming from his brain. 

That’s why he didn’t have the strength to explain to Qian Kun why he should stop drilling his brain, rambling about _him_ in a loud voice. Ten’s mind was shoddy enough to make it hard for him to elaborate an explanation that sounded congruent for a human being without unveiling more of the secrets that he had exposed in front of Jung Jaehyun in the most tragic night of his life, so he preffered to be quiet. 

With a bit more energy in his soul, the dokkaebi would have slapped the bedevilment out of his older friend, but he just hoped that his dark gaze translated fine enough.

The warning had been, for sure, fully heard by Sicheng. The youngest had tapped Kun’s shoulder lightly and given him that gentle expression of ‘you are giving him an unfair headache, is not the moment to say you told him it would happen’. 

In fact, Sicheng and Xiaojun had been looking at him in a different key. It wasn't hard to tag it as pity, Ten had seen those expressions on his friends' faces before.

For once, he didn't find it as distasteful as he had in the past, feeling just a tiny bit comprehended and not so disappointing. 

Nonetheless, the fox had to deal with yet another one of Kun’s chastises about lapsing into a man that didn’t care about him -according to the vision of the happenings seen by him- when he saw that Ten’s coping method had been to buy a beautiful planter that imitated a wide piece of pottery with a beige, calm surface, and had dedicated himself to read about flowers for two days.

In response to his allegations, Ten had looked at him a bit tired and sighed. 

“Won’t you let me cultivate a healthy hobby either?” 

“Come on, Ten. You suck at plant nurturing and have never been interested in gardening”

“Kun” protested Xuxi, who was sat around the table with all the dinner plates on display and surrounded by the rest of the group of friends, trying to defend him “He is just growing flowers” 

"You know why you are doing this" he had accused him, which made Ten strangely furious, considering all the exhaustion he had been under. 

“Kun” called one of the guys again, this time Xiaojun, trying to make him drop the topic. "The dinner is going to get cold" 

“I don’t care that you all think i'm being harsh!” he explained for all the presents teaming up against his words. “I just can’t see you crying the loss of a guy that hurt you repeatedly, as if you deserve to be hurt like this! Ten, it breaks my heart and makes my blood burn because you-”

“Well, do you think I’m all brain, Kun?” snapped Ten for the first time ever since he had returned that certain Tuesday night all by himself and spilling his heart out in tear format.

Everyone turned around, perplexed, to stare at Ten. From that moment, he hadn’t talked about Taeyong openly, and they all had assumed what they could name as ‘the worst possible scenario’, quite unaware of how even more hurtful it really was for Ten if Taeyong didn’t simply break up with him out of nowhere.

Humans are simple-minded.

“Of course I am leaping into hobbies that I didn't have before, of course it's a coping mechanism, I'm in fucking pieces! I’m not a cold-blood fox that eats the hearts of people and turn the page! However much you guys used to think I can’t feel anything, I loved him! Are you bothered that I’m growing flowers? Good for you, now _shut it_!”

He couldn’t give no shit about his friend pestering him about his impulse to continue to get a gardening spot in that home, that pot under his window was the only thing that made him feel like Taeyong wasn’t a mirage running through his mind. 

The miniature rose bush needed a lot of specific and careful caring, according to the notably old gardening book that was left on his desks, so at least it kept him occupied. 

There was a need of watering it everyday, when the surface of the potting soil dried, to keep the humidity in the best conditions and even spray some dew on the leaves occasionally.

Ten sometimes stood there after pouring the lagoon’s water that he collected every week, leaning on the cold ceramic container, as if he could witness the act of blooming flowers if he stood there for long enough. 

He felt a little stupid, and maybe he would never admit it out loud, but he chuckled when the first bud bloomed, shyly opening its petals, flexible, showcasing their beauty to the world. 

It was supposed to be a plant of white roses, just like Taeyong when his silver-like hair reflected the light of Ten’s faint lamp in the night table, or when his glossy wolf fur could be seen sneaking behind trees; but they were strangely stained red, half and half. Well, to be more accurate, the pattern happened to change depending on the flower, none of them was the same amount of red or white. 

It was almost as if someone had pricked their hand with the thorns and bled over them. 

That was a bitter casualty that made Ten mix a tear on his giggle. 

In what type of world it was a fair law of nature to be granted a second chance before Taeyong? How did he deserve it but not the holiest creature he knew?

Alive again. At what cost. 

He instinctively reached for the silver chain that used to hang from his neck, but it was no longer there for him to curl it around his finger. 

Maybe due to the nourishing action of the forest pond’s water or just because the plant was growing up well, there were plenty of flowers popping inside the planter.

The first time he dared to pick up one, he stared at it for a prolonged minute and, inhaling a pinch of strength, he thought that he should go and show Taeyong about his advances in learning how to take care of another living organism. 

He had his way, if going up the hill. 

Of course Taeyong wouldn’t be nodding and telling him he did a good job, but Busan’s humans, scared to the core, had been quick erecting a shrine in the forest, with the torii and everything. It wasn't the best way to redeem their mistakes, but at least the wolf would have been proud to see that citizens had learned a valious lesson on behalf of his loss and wouldn't be messing with the place anymore.

So Sunday after Sunday, Ten kept going up to Ahopsan Forest, crossed the barren and went up the stone stairs to sit by himself on the shrine, think about his things and leave a single rose for Taeyong. 

The dried, small, two-colors petals had started gathering over the stone tiles when they broke loose with the blow of the wind and, according to that one semi-viral tweet going around, the visitors of the shrine had started wondering where they came from and why. They were a very particular type of flower that only appeared once a week, during the night, people were obviously curious about the reason of such special oblation to the deity. 

Is not like Ten cared about how famous his grief was, he just wanted to turn back time and know better. 

Sometimes it was too much for him, but he couldn’t stop going up there and spending the hours sitting on the cold stone, alone. He was physically incapable of staying at his apartment, pretending his reality was different. It was enough to lose a boyfriend in a cruel and egotistic way made up by humans, fighting for a noble cause; but having to be quiet about it as well, was killing him.

Those nocturnal trips to his own grave, he could admit, that Kun could have told him off about it and be right.

Maybe that was the reason that he was always visiting during night time. 

Or because he wished to remember one special night in his life that had changed everything and swim into the lagoon to check out if the miraculous water could help him find a way out of there.

In this wise, it came the third full moon since Ten had opened his eyes. 

Trees were hanging over his head as if they craved a caress of Ten’s skin, but almost all the leaves were gone to the floor or frozen on branches. Yet, the forest looked as green and vivid as always, vibrating with the ancient energy of the truest form of living as the moss spreaded on the stone of the stairs and beyond, claiming their territory. 

His steps were sloppy, ascending slowly, with a challenging feeling of disturbance that mixed with the taste of going back home. 

There was a faint shine illuminating the path radiating from the full moon cascading through the branches and the quiet fly of some fireflies landing on Ten's pale pink hair, like hair pins made of shining spotlights, travelling across the woods nestled in a comfortable place.

He was fidgeting with the miniature rose, spinning it in his fingers with a lost gaze on the petals, feeling drowsy though sleepless. His nostalgia, reflected on the floral leaves and slipped into his heart.

He believed that time couldn’t change that. 

When Ten rose his head, nose poking towards the shrine appearing in the distance, it looked as quiet as always. 

It might have been the fact that his hearing wasn't as sharp as it used to be. 

Three steps to reach the top.

Two.

One. 

His eyes brushed the shrine gently like a lover caressing the skin of their partner while laying on bed, and then, his eyes locked with the dark, wide irises of someone that he knew too well and seemed to be waiting for him.

His breath became shallow. 

He felt like he couldn’t move from the spot where he was standing, and that not even the thorns of the flower poking his palm couldn’t take him away from the feeling that was spreading on his flowing blood. 

The pebbles falling from the stones around the shrine were the only sound that broke the silence, clicking on the dirt as the human-looking being in front of him stood up, white hair catching glows under the moon's shine when he stepped out from the shadows stealing his breath away.

Suddenly, Ten's feelings were just a wet sheet of cardboard, crumbling at the vision that he had given up for his own good. 

He heard the batting wings of the wolf's exhale unraveling between them.

In the silver light of the night, Ten could catch the glimpse of sparkle over the glossy surface of his eyes, sensations rushing to cling onto his lash line right before he could whip it out of the way swiftly. 

Still, Ten couldn’t move a muscle. His broken heart was waiting for his brain to catch up with the situation. 

The wolf lifted up his hand a bit, bringing a wilted looking red and white rose to attention with a wave.

His voice vibrated with the same husky and charming tone that Ten was terrified to forget when he spoke.

"You learned how to plant them"

One moment Ten was hearing every word with the accent of longing and the next he was getting rid of the distance between them to take Taeyong’s wrist and pull him over against his chest with a hasty tug, as if he was scared that the wolf would be disappearing again any time soon. 

After so long without him, he just hoped he needed him as bad as Ten did when his lips got closer to Taeyong's own and joined, drowning on the taste.

It was all Taeyong on his tongue, like honey warmed by the sun and running hot, down to his chest and warming him up. 

All the sadness, yearning, and anger that Ten had been containing exploded into that sweet, rash, silken kiss.

Ten had never kissed like that before, not even with him.

Then, he sensed the wolf reacting to him with a slow shockwave that traveled down his spine, raising his hands to put them on Ten's cheeks and hold him close to him. The fox felt the chills of pleasure and panic crawling onto his chest together while Taeyong attacked his lips harder, parting them to slip his tongue in and lick in his mouth eagerly.

Only Ten's hand could refrain him from doing it, from drinking him whole, as it landed over his chest and pushed the older one back, a gasp going out of him to collide with Taeyong’s breath. 

It took the wolf less than a second to glimpse the glassy brightness of Ten's eyes. 

His heart clenched but he didn't know why, or what was going on. 

“Fuck” 

“Ah, yes, my poet” whispered Taeyong with a smile, feeling the tears falling on his cheeks. 

“Shit” Ten buried his face on the palm of his hand, feeling like the oxygen in his lungs faltered and he needed to sit on the ground before the dizziness made him faint straight onto the stone.

He sucked in the air as if it was a thick, sticky substance, but the smell of the roses on a virgin winter night filled up his nostrils and took him back home. 

Not as if in his house. Just home. 

"Ten, are you alright?" 

He chewed his recently kissed lip, just as Taeyong craved to continue doing, his gaze dropping towards the floor.

Under his fingertips Taeyong could feel the sudden tremble and evasiveness of the younger, only hitting to feel worry for him.

He shook his head, eyes still low. " I just..." 

Taeyong tried to follow up and wrap him between his arms but Ten quickly squirmed, recoiling like a small animal… like a fox. 

Ten wanted to get loose and voice the thing that his mind had been repeating over and over for the past three months, but it had been so long, and the days so painful, that he had lost the practice and couldn’t remember how to raise his voice.

With the mere thought of the wolf, Ten knew how crucial he was in his life and feelings; and so the terror stole courage from him when he needed to admit the truest way of his feelings again after being devastated because of them. He was scared and at the same time drenched in cravenness.

He couldn’t do it easily, say that he…

“I love you” breathed out the fox, finally exhaling the stuck sigh that was clogging his throat and getting it out of the way.

Taeyong smiled immediately in front of his face and then snuggled into Ten's neck, one more time since the day they met, breathing in deeply to smell the sweet scent coming from him. Taeyong had always liked the scent, but the mix was still a mystery for him. It was forest-like, but it had a fancy note to it, like jasmine and fresh wood. 

However, the fox felt the pulse of his heart taking off and galloping all loud when Taeyong caressed his jaw softly and wishpered. 

"I love you more" 

What was happening to him? Why did Ten feel so weak in the knees and so like crying? The feelings were making his body cease to function, so strongly that they could torch as his hands pressed on the small of Taeyong’s back, holding him to his chest and trying to get all the resourance he could in the minimum amount of time. 

“Why? Where have you been?” asked Ten finally, feeling that the warm tears were falling from his eyes.

Taeyong’s soul fell down to his feet when he heard the tone in which the fox was talking to him, as if he could hear the sparkle of his dearest pale down in brightness, as if it had never been there beyond his imagination.

His hand went to his face almost as if he was trying to make the fox feel the touch and convince him that he was real, but soon, Ten turned too shaky for that matter, trying to wipe his own tears off.

“Why are you late? Where did you leave me alone? It’s been three months, Taeyong”

“What… what’s the date?” he dared to ask. 

Ten separated a little bit from him and scrutinized the man with his eyes, cheeks still gleaming with his glossy tears.

“Ja...January, the 27th”

The older could see how the fox took his fingers to his temple and rubbed circles, like trying to ease an invisible pain away.

He sighed, tired, worried and so many thinga more. 

“Almost your birthday” 

Ten smiled and nodded. He couldn’t hate Taeyong even for a second of spite after the grief.

It wasn’t his fault. 

People were on the streets, screaming and making a fuss because many of them were ignorant. It was as if they did it on purpose so there was a reason for Taeyong to appear and regal them with the notes of a wolf’s flexibility against the steel of the city. 

The modern, urbanite landscape was a privilege for many, but the life that made Busan breath with a fuel to work was no other than the shine of their irrational happiness. And Ten understood why he had rushed to him just with the first glimpses of his personality, as everything in that world looked especially mean and sharp, except from Taeyong’s eyes looking at him. 

His dark orbs were the yardstick to find the things that indulged him and those that didn't. 

What he wanted to have. 

He looked at him, motionless, for an indefinable spawn of time. He looked at how he was staring back at him and how big his pupils had expanded so much he could fit the full moon on the black field of them, using it like a firmament. 

So inaccessible from one angle and so tender from the other. 

"And you've been here since…?"

"October" completed Ten, pressing his lips in a thin line. With that simple gesture, Taeyong could see how he felt, holding more of his tears back. The wolf had been back in the world for no more than four days and he had already felt the deep sorrow of thinking about losing Ten to eternity, he just couldn't imagine how Ten's life should have been doing the same for three months. "The 1st" 

"Baby, I didn't…" 

"Kiss me" he demanded. 

Taeyong swore that his spinning mind had registered those two words like in a fantasy, so subtle and fast.

Nonetheless, the result came up by the instinct of a hasty fox that didn’t wait for him to do what he had been told. 

With a hand that creeped up to hold his face and the other lacing around his waist, Ten got close to his face and caught Taeyong’s lukewarm lip in between his again, kissing him all hard and raw to a point that the sharp tip of his fang almost cut on his lip. 

He felt how Taeyong’s hands trembled slightly, but he held him closer to him no matter the inquietude of his up and downs.

It was the least he could do when a kiss molded so well on his lips.

Ten's mouth felt meek, tender and somehow tentative; it made Taeyong inhale the sense of compassion mixing with his urge. 

The fox pulled back a little, his eyes falling to his bottom lip while his eyes were still closed in a puzzling silence. It seemed pouty, and Taeyong had such an urge to bite it, to kiss it again, to lose the gentle breathing over that fleshy pink mouth like the night at the cabin when he discovered Ten’s purple light. 

“I’m... so sorry, baby” mumbled Taeyong, holding on his calm and consistency that only Ten knew how to put in danger, kissing him again. "Ten" 

His concern turned into a soft giggle that couldn't be contained, due to the fox peppering kisses on his lips, cheeks, and all over him without giving our a verbal response to his call. 

Ten's feelings were clustering and running high after the suffering, and he just wanted to hold him so hard that his brain just exploded with serotonin and turned back to what he was. 

He knew he was being kind of incoherent for his wolf, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't hold it together anymore. 

His fingers dug onto Taeyong's skin, pushing him harder as their fronts brushed and the hot exhale of the fox crushed againts Taeyong's lips eith a shaky wisp. 

The goosebumps appeared on Taeyong's skin as if he had been whipped by delight, shaking his sleeping spirit fully awake again. 

" _Ten_ " 

“Hmm?”

“Ta-ke me home, if you… are going to do _that"_ he said with a hiccup, trying to deal with the tingles that his smug fox was eliciting with the glistening streaming of kisses down his neck and to his collar. 

With something extremely close to defeat, Ten let his face bury on the crook of his shoulder, breathing out.

“I can’t”

“What?”

Taeyong looked at him as Ten rubbed his forehead and recovered the senses after abandoning himself to physically feel Taeyong, sitting on the stone step that cooled his blood down with the chilly temperature of the winter night. 

"I can't" he repeated, louder and more stern.

He wrapped himself on his black fur coat, trying to keep his warmth and to find defense. 

The wolf sat by his side, leaving the rose he still was holding to take his boyfriend’s hand in his. 

"Tell me what's wrong, Ten, please"

“Yongie” he called, making the oldest of the pair to feel a bit softer and softer. Nonetheless, his smile couldn’t flow seeing Ten looking at his extended hand as if it was unknown for him and didn’t belong to his body. “I can’t change” 

“What?” he repeated, but Ten wasn’t so sure of what to answer, either. 

Taeyong didn't want to pressure him, he looked so off… he had never seen him like that even during the night of the fire. 

“Since I came back, I haven’t been able to change my shape or find the way into the cabin. Even reaching the pond became hard for me, I keep losing track of my surroundings and don't remember the directions. I couldn’t even hear you were here when I was coming. It’s like I’m… turning human” 

He looked at Taeyong with fear in his eyes, his hands shaking and his aura all unsettled. 

The wolf took his hand to Ten's face and gifted him with a faint, gentle smile that he knew that would make Ten bewildered. 

In his widening fox eyes, there was a question mark. 

"You seem the same to me"

Ten's sigh collided with Taeyong’s countenance and he closed his eyes gently, as if it was a serene breeze of early morning dispute being at least one in the morning.

It still smelled like fresh water dripping down your chin when you drink eagerly from a fountain. 

"How can you say that?"

"Because you haven't changed a bit. Look at you, still caring and still stubborn, maybe with a lot more of fatigue on your face that I would like to see, but still one hundred percent Ten" 

Another tear dropped from his lashes and fell on a flower, but that one traveled slower.

Ten sniffed. "Then... you take me home with you, alright?"

“Of course I will. Whenever you want, baby”

“As soon as possible, please, I am so cold lately” 

Taeyong nodded, firmly. 

If there was something he knew for sure is that Ten had always stood for him, and so he would for Ten. 

He got up, and tugged from the younger one, closing his eyes for a bit and scrunching his nose as if he tried to force something in his brain, turning to the west to find his house. 

The way was quiet, but not a bad quiet. It wasn't void, but the hidden creatures of the woods were chirping somewhere behind the remaining leaves.

Ten blinked behind his round glasses, eyes not really getting used to the darkness that swallowed everything when they left the little lanterns of the shrine, but fireflies had taken off to illuminate the path surrounded by bushes, the slow melodic sound of the stream that filled the pond finally started sinking in Ten's bones and taking the stiffness of his back away. 

Home is where one is at peace, not the one place you pay. 

Taeyong didn't seem to have lost the capacity to point directions between the trees, he moved across the lands just as good as he had always done. 

Far up the side of the ancient forest of Ahopsan, within a fifteen minute walk from the quiet, fresh clearing where the pond laid, and having paced under trees for an airly while, there stood a wooden cabin with its walls covered by a modest trail of creepers.

Without even a need of taking out a key, Taeyong was opening the door in a second and stepping inside with Ten on his trail.

When the fox breathed inside the cabin, the air was stalled and it smelt like dust, for it had been closed and abandoned for too long, but there was something that still remained between those walls. 

Ten could practically see himself hiding behind the farthest armrests of the couch, pretending he didn't have a mischievous sneer in his face and a bunch of bad ideas in his head while Taeyong tried to call upon the rationale within him sat at the other edge. 

A faux step from the wolf and Ten would have pounce him. 

But when he looked at Taeyong, at the real one standing besides him now, his blood revolted and became unsettled.

He just didn’t know what to say to him.

The shock and scars were bumpy against Ten's skin and made him itch, turning him unsure of himself and if he was ready for another round of it. It was hard for him to get loose the first time, and with the scare of heartache, indulging in love for the second time could be tougher. 

There were feelings in his gut and there were some others in his heart, both contradicting each other about how to act, and so there was an awkward second where he couldn’t get a hold of the courage he needed to do something.

Nonetheless, looking into Taeyong’s face, thoughts lifted and flew away. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t really a problem to know how to move because this time, it was Taeyong who walked to him and wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him into a kiss in the middle of the living room. 

It was especially hasty to be Taeyong, as if he wanted to have him whole, pressing Ten against his body, promising that everythings was real no matter how odd the situation had turned. 

Well, they had always been the odd pair. 

The older one’s hands ventured over the curve of his hips, exploring. His lips brushed over Ten and, although still innocent like the trademark that defined Taeyong, there’s a clever tint of tease under, passionate and nostalgic.

The pink haired one wanted to lose himself into it, but he couldn’t seem to.

He pulled apart and opened his eyes reluctantly.

"Should we take it slow?" Murmured Ten.

"Slower?" Blurted Taeyong out in return. He sounded a dash frustrated. “All of this mess with the humans invading the forest took us away in the middle of our relationship, and I just don't want another pause in how it moves. I already made that mistake once"

"I am so confused and I don't know what's the correct thing to do. Learning how to make romantic things work was already a big thing to me..."

"I promise you that you weren't bad at it"

"...and now it escalated. I don't know what to give to you..."

"But I… I missed you. You don’t... want to kiss me?”

“I-”

“Did I do something wrong?” Taeyong asked under his breath, touching his own lips with a nervous pair of fingers, victim of a tremor. 

“No!” whined Ten, breaking a little bit more. The older one watched him in complete silence, his heart racing, scared of not being able to get Ten over that numb state. “I missed you too, so damn bad. It’s just that… I am having very raw feelings at this moment. Just imagine the magnitude of the things I am going through. I lost you. I knew for sure that I couldn’t love someone as bad as I did- as i do-with you, and I was devastated everytime I asked myself why I came back to this world and not the best person in my entire life."

"I'm here now" 

"I lost my magic, I am no longer the same kind of… being."

"I never needed your magic to love you"

"And I went to the shrine tonight only to mourn, without a single pinch of hope about seeing you again lasting in me. Then suddenly you are here, I am…" Ten breathed in, making a pause. He stared into Taeyong's eyes. "So happy that I can’t even say something good enough for you, although you deserve the moon” 

“Then don’t talk” replied Taeyong, curiously being, with three words, as eloquent as he barely had been before. He was curling around Ten like a vine that caressed him with his leaves. "Just touch me, tell me with your skin on mine" 

He let Ten be the one that pulled him in that time, giving him an open mouth kiss on his lips, first very soft and slow, as he brushed Taeyong's lip with his tongue. 

Nevertheless, he knew what he wanted, and that it was the same Taeyong wanted, getting a rush of adrenaline under his skin once that he had taken the burdens off his chest talking to him, so it soon turned passionate and deep. 

"So bold, babe…"

Taeyong pressed his body harder against him and rolled his hips to feel the warmth of his body, keenimg. It was immensely pleasant, for the tingles spread over his skin and butterflies took off inside his tummy. His lips parted with a faint mewl, and Ten attacked them again, taking his lower lip between his and lightly tugging it into his mouth. 

The wolf's kisses always made him explode into flames, for his lips were so plush and smooth, and the taste of them had an acid note of wild cherry that, far from being able to quench Ten’s thirst, only encouraged more of it.

They were squirming around, and the nostalgia got so wide inside both their chests that Ten couldn’t help but to push Taeyong until his hip hit one of his livingroom’s tables, trapping him there to do him as much as he wanted, ache starting to build between his legs while the wolf rubbed his crotch against his thigh, up and down, giggling under his breath like a kid that wants to act naughty and grab all the attention to him.

But it worked so well. 

Ten broke the kiss, raining onto his neck with a mouthy kiss, sucking the flesh over his immaculate skin. Taeyong gasped for air, throwing his head back and humming faintly, proof that the nipping on his neck was loving him on the right spot.

“Let’s go to my room” mumbled Taeyong with an arousing murmur, sticky like honey. 

Ten nodded, not stopping to hesitate anymore. The compass of his needs was already pointing to its personal north. 

Taeyong gasped, not expecting that Ten would wrap his arms atound his thin waist and lift him up on his arms, shortening the small distance towards the dormitory. 

The door was closed, which made his back to get smashed on the surface because Ten was too busy fighting his tongue's way into his mouth to taste him and get drunk on his over sweetened taste.

He could feel Ten's bulge against his, as his legs had clasped the fox's hips and their crotches were brushing together.

Almost not wanting to leave the feel of being captured against the wood and his boyfriend's eager body, Taeyong palmed the door, looking for the handle that he pushed on a rush.

They stumbled into the room, and Taeyong put his feet back to the floor, resting his hands on Ten's shoulders. His palms trailed down to his front, stopping only briefly to unbutton Ten's shirt while he saw how the latter's lips were red and swollen already, like a shiny fruit fresh and juicy to be eaten, and his respiration was so dense and needy. 

Not even Ten didn't know he was so avid himself until Taeyong activated him.

"I love how you look at me when you want me to have my way with you, it's so hot" purred Ten, his foxy dare coming back like a rainpur. "I am going to lash back with a months worthy strength, baby"

The wold couldn't take Ten's words, he was blushing again, so quickly, he latched his tongue over his nipple, and began to suckle as it hardened in his mouth. The pink haired one moaned lightly, hips rolling and searching for Taeyong’s semi to grind against it, taunt inside his pants.

"Tell me more" mewled the older one. "About us"

A sneer was drawn on Ten's moist lips, getting fully onto the mood that made Taeyong lose it. His shirt had already fallen onto the floor, and he was making things even by unbuttoning Taeyong's jeans and making him step out of them. His underwear was packed with a lot to hold, and there was a darker patch of wetness where he was leaking. 

"Just to feel that I take out that needy puppy out of a virtuous wolf, makes me feel God-like" his fingers hooked on Taeyong's waistband, pulling down to free his erection slowly, first the tip and then, when Taeyong's lips parted with a soundless drawn of air, to the middle of his thighs. "Hmm… do you like that?" 

Taeyong's nails kissed Ten's shoulders, as he stepped out of his pants and moved his dick against the rough material of Ten's jeans shamelessly and hissing.

"Yes. Yes. Yes. And you are not touching me yet. It's so dumb"

"You are not dumb, pup" he said quickly, letting the older undo the fly of his trousers to let him push them down his butt and join his on the floor. Ten kicked them off their way, leading his man to the mattress. "Just a bit too dirty" 

"I-"

Taeyong flushed, with Ten's dark giggle echoing in his eardrums, but he stood on his feet close to the bed, watching how the pink haired dokkaebi positioned on the mattress, sitting with his back against the window wall and his legs spread far enough to let him perfectly appreciate the length of his member marking under the material. 

"Come right here" 

His voice dropping octaves and the shine of his eyes all for him was unbearable for him, turning the heat under his skin to the maximum, so Taeyong tugged from his own shirt, making a couple of buttons pop and hit the wooden floor, pulling the top down his shoulders with a mesmerising motion. 

Ten's eyes devoured the view eagerly, capturing the shine of moonlight on his velvety skin, the pink splashes of his nipples, his flat stomach and the perfect accent of a silver chain with a drop-shaped pearl hanging from his neck. 

He was perfectly beautiful, undoubtedly divine, and looked gorgeous wearing the jewell that only a kumiho could give to him. 

As if he was in a trance, Taeyong let go off his last piece of clothing.

With a rather cocky gesture, his eyes dropped half closed, and he reached out a hand and rested it on his warm shaft, bold, fingers closing around it. 

"It… feels so good" he said softly, locking his eyes with Ten, giving him a sullen look with his jaw clenched and his cheeks blushed. But, encouraged with the pleasure, he began to slide his hand back and forth. "But you do it better"

Ten smirked, as he observed quiet. His boyfriend managed to look even better every time they did it.

"Allow me, then". The fox surrounded his waist with his arms and pulled Taeyong onto the bed, standing between his sprawled legs and pushing his bent knees further apart. He grasped his dick and started pumping it slowly. "It's pretty hard, isn't it?" 

The older nodded his head in agreement, but the train of his thoughts derailed and got buried under the sensation of Ten dragging the palm of his hand on his dick carefully.

His hands slid down to the base and back up to the tip, not gripping too hard, teasing it with his finger as he sat astride on his thigh. 

Taeyong was starting to grind into the bed, squirming under his delicate touch when the fox switched from rubbing his index finger against the tip and began pumping him with his hand.

"This is definitely Heaven, I'm still dead" 

The fox could feel his own dick growing inside his pants and instinctively started to rub the bulge against Taeyong's thigh, accompaining the moves with the pump of his hand. 

His breath cut out, for Taeyong had grabbed a handful of his pink hair and pulled him down on an urgent kiss that was more of breath and tongue than anything else. His fangs weren't that pointy nowadays, but Taeyong's body still jolted with excitement when Ten caught his bottom lip between his teeth and pulled the fresh flesh a little. 

The youngest's hands held his hips, trying to keep Taeyong at ease for a bit longer, as their mouths competed to decide who had been more lonely and needy of love in the absence of the other but the race was pretty equal. 

A rushed heartbeat thumped against Ten's chest, pressing the beats against Taeyong, his hot skin and the burning sensation of the refulgent pearl touching Ten's chest. 

He felt a bucket full of lust spilling on top of him when Taeyong arched his back to meet his body, drowning a moan of relish under his lips. It was his man, the person Ten adored and loved, and just to make him sound like that made his blood run at double speed and his hair bristle. 

The sense and rash increased when Taeyong hooked his fingers on the wristband of his boxers, pulling them down.

As impatient as he really was in the core of his person, Ten pulled back from the boy under him with a small wet noise of their mouths smacking, and stepped out of his underwear, tossing it to the desk's chair. 

Then he rammed his hips into Taeyong, pushing him down into the bed.

The wolf's claws grazed lightly down his back, exciting the skin, leaving red trails and goosebumps in their way.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" he pressed his lips against the back of Taeyong's ear, speaking in a sensual voice. "You want to be taken like this?" 

"Desperately" he admitted. 

Just as if in purpose, Ten's hot tongue against his skin turned slower and lighter, drawing sparkles of bliss in his navel.

He worked his way down, kissing gently on his collar, on his chest… on his abdomen with Taeyong tightening his muscles under the touch that made him feel like going insane.

Ten stopped between his legs, and met his eyes for a moment, a little smirk tugging at the corner of his lips making Taeyong's heart flap like a butterfly.

His hot breath fanned over his skin, and then, his tongue lapped over Taeyong's entrance, erasing the completely quiet air of the room with a wet sound. Very slowly, he parted his ass cheeks and let his tongue dive in, making the eldest clench and mewl softly. He had to hold him, hands clasping on his thighs so the wolf couldn't press his knees together out of his edginess. 

His tongue flicked up and down, circling all over the place. 

Taeyong twisted his hips doing everything he could to show him his love, the need of him making him sweat.

He was enjoying it too much, his back arched to grant him better access and his dick twitched, definitely turning it a bit too aching, but the fox couldn't help but to go untamed and twirl his tongue in that special way that always worked. 

He could tell that his white haired dear was on the verge of crying out some magical word that starts with a P, breathless and beginning to implore with little whispers while his legs couldn't stop shaking under the pressure. 

Yet the fox grabbed his hips and pulled him back, taking his tongue to go deeper and making sure to highlight who really needed to have his hands full of who once again.

And because he needed to get him wet and loose if he wanted to end the night inside him.

Taeyong squirmed, crying out like a lost pet and tugging on Ten's hair again. 

He was being unusually rough, but the fox allowed it just fine, letting him pull him back, then up to his lips for a kiss, and lastly, onto the mattress. 

Ten gasped slightly, body pressed under his boyfriend as he stranded him and closed the gap putting his mouth on Ten's. His tongue slipped between his slick lips and his hand wrapped around Ten's erection. 

He swallowed, gulping down a moan as Taeyong started running his fingers along it, moving his hand up and down along the shaft way faster than he had done earlier. 

Taeyong gazed into his eyes, dark and beautiful as only him could have.

Ten smiled at him, wickedly. He held Taeyong's wrist and flipped him on the bed so he would face the ceiling again, hands pinned above his head. 

The mere fact of being pinned like that made the wolf's hips writhe, heated and shamelessly on full display for Ten only. It made his cheeks flush with passion and desire, and his tongue get loose. 

"Fuck me" 

"You want that?" 

He grinned, biting on his neck, and pushed him down holding his thin waist between his hands.

Taeyong really made Ten lose control of himself from the first time throughout.

His nails dug slightly onto his flesh, and Taeyong didn't have to wait a lot longer before he could feel him pressing up against his entrance, pushing slowly inside. 

"Aah… fuck, yes, please!" 

He let out a moan at the feeling of being stretched and filled, mind turning dull. 

Then, Ten pulled out for a second and opened the drawer of the night table, looking for lube. He batted against finding something, but there was a bottle there, from which he poured enough lube in Taeyong's impatient hole and pushed two fingers back in to spread it. 

Taeyong clenched around his fingers, his sounds increasing steadily with Ten's fingertips teasing on his sensitive spot. 

He swallowed, withdrawing his hand from the wolf again and making him whine and arch his back on the bed, looking at him with stained eyes of desire.

The younger's cock was so hard, it had become firm and full, and he was aware right then and there that three months of nothing had piled over his feelings but also over his body reactions. 

He didn't want to make it longer, not when Taeyong looked so perfect and ready under him, waiting for his little trait, pliantly. He wouldn't last that much that time.

He put the tip in, the tight heat grabbing onto him. Taeyomg mewled with the anticipation, gist clenching on the sheet as Ten soon began thrusting once and then twice, wounding his own lips as he bit them down to try and stop a groan that came out anyways. 

"F-ast" choked out Taeyong, rushing his boyfriend to fill and stretch him more.

Ten smirked, hearing about everything he wanted, and so he pumped in faster, making the wolf twist on the sheets, grabbing onto them harder.

He paused for a moment before repeating the motion and taking it deeper. 

Taeyong felt that his breath was heavy and desperate, with Ten pressing himself into his ass, gripping his hips and starting to pound into him incredibly sharp, but not fast.

His cock was thickening even more inside Taeyong's damp warmth. 

"More, Ten"

"If I go faster this ain't lasting long, baby" 

Taeyong nodded with a dumb, drowsy smile, hips buckling up to meet his boyfriend's sway and length twitching when he took it on his hand and rubbed his thumb over the wet slit. 

"I don't care about that" breathed Taeyong out, as he moved his hips and tried not to moan to complete a coherent sentence. "We are even" 

"Oh, so you are about to cum, uh?" Asked Ten with his cunning smile, actually listening to Taeyong and building up the speed. 

Like a cultivated dancer, he moved his hips so well, flowy and lush. He always had, and it had always made Taeyong crazy.

Without regrets, the wolf let himself go, he gave up to the pleasure of fucking with Ten once more, wtithing on the bed with a big moan and moving his hand faster to match the pace.

He could feel how Ten was closing his fist on the sheets at each side of his head, and guessed that he wasn’t the only one who was having trouble holding it for any minute longer. He unconsciously arched his body even more under him, while he tried to digest the pleasure and the words that sounded so wonderful to him in Ten’s husky whispered voice.

“I have missed you every second of the last three months” he said, like a small oasis of softness in the middle of a constant coughing and gagging that had a drop of sweat running down his temple. 

Taeyong was so feverish, edging and in a blaze, that he didn’t know how to react to that. His eyelids were heavy, but he opened them up to look for Ten’s deep irises that he loved so much and say a silent answer. 

The fox was staring at him too, his eyes piercing and beautiful, full of wanton. 

He heard a white noise for a weighless moment, felt his skin shudder, and the air became a sweet, purple cloud that stole his breath away.

It was as if the intensity of the surroundings amplified and the colors turned more and more saturated just without moving his attention from Ten a single second. He was transfixed whilst his entire body went through a convulsing wave of ecstasy, throwing his head back on the pillow and letting everything spill from him to mix with Ten’s personal fit of pleasure dripping on his stomach. 

Well, the older one wasn’t in a state to do proper thinking, but he could have affirmed that Ten was definitely still a fox.

He just didn’t know how to control it like he used to. 

He needed a considerable interval of time before that cloudy vision of magic dissolved and let him react like a decent person again, prompting himself on his arms- that still shivered- to sit on the bed. 

Ten, by the other hand, was leaning against the wall and window, sat by Taeyong’s side, in silence but keeping an eye open to check on the state of his white haired boyfriend.

He smiled when the latter crowled briefly to plop on his chest, holding him between his arms delicately.

Taeyong wanted to say his words in a proper way, with tact and good manners, but the form in which his heart was pounding let him know that he wasn’t going to be any more eloquent that night.

“You went off, little fox of mine. Your spell is back. I think I saw sound” 

There was a small moment of quietness.

The wolf didn’t want to open his mouth to put it an end, he knew that maybe his boyfriend needed a time up to let his words sink in, and he was comfortable hearing the gentle whistle of his breathing. 

“Well, I do feel exhausted” confided Ten up. Then he chuckled. “But I always tend to feel exhausted after I entangle with you, to be fair” 

Taeyong smiled and laughed at his joke, getting surprised with the sound of his giggles. Just like Ten, it had seemed long for him since he didn’t think about something so joyous or funny that could lift the sorrow of memories shattered so badly. 

He took air as his arms cinched tighter around Ten’s waist, as if he could find comfort in the act of merging with him. The youngest corresponded to the gesture running his perfectly manicured fingers through his hair, pampering his scalp with a touch so light that it was almost unbelievable that he was the same man that had been making him scream earlier. 

Everything was so uncertain. 

Time ago, Taeyong at least knew the reason for his stance in the forest and the direction of his footsteps, but in his new awakening he failed to understand so much more. 

A lot of humans said that destiny is one thing that you create for yourself, and nothing settled by a higher force, and honestly, the wolf had thought about this argument a few times before, specially in the last three days. All the same, he struggled to shift from his thought of having a perfectly fated objective in life. 

Maybe there was nothing as important and destined to happen that to spend his life together with Ten.

If that was the reason, then why to make his boyfriend suffer like that bringing him back a lot before. Taeyong was appalled when he saw the devastated look in his face a second before he processed that the wolf was back. 

“And what now?” he voiced. 

Ten, without coming to a halt with the caresses upon his head, shrugged faintly. 

“I don’t know, baby. I would like to put my hand on the fire and say… that that was all. We did everything that was there for us to do”

“Then why… why…” he couldn’t complete the sentence and imply the chilling fact of their lives taking a dangerous pause. 

“Why are we here? I wish I had a precise answer for you, or for me, at least. I want to think that we acted fairly even when the right thing to do was a big sacrifice. Until today, when I thought about a reason to come from the afterlife, I only ended up crying and thinking this felt more like a curse, but now you are here, touching me and everything feels… a lot better. Simply much better.” 

"So we just have… the gift of freedom now?"

"Maybe"

“I don’t know. I have never known how to... relax and take things easy” 

“Me neither, but I guess we’ll have to practice” 

Taeyong giggled slightly, feeling like the way in which Ten was softly talking to him and playing with the pale locks of his hair was a good beginning to learn how to be more carefree. 

“If we are going to learn how to be more laid back, we can say you have to train… a doggie” 

Ten lets out a cackle from the bottom of his heart. Somehow, his soul was light again, and he had his suspicions of why that was happening inside of him, it wasn’t the first time that his heart found shortcuts to better places while on that bed. 

"If that's my new job, that's my new job, baby" 

"So how are things at home?" 

"Not a lot has changed. I have a planter full of roses that you are going to need to water. And Kun hates you to death now" commented Ten with his eyes lost on the ceiling. 

"I don't blame him" answered Taeyong with his voice specially sticky and slow. He was falling asleep nestled on Ten's chest. The latter wrapped his arms around his shoulders so he could lean on him comfortably, and kissed his hair. "He warned me about it. He just loves you a ton and worries about how you do. In his eyes I think I'm a threat to the peace. Plus I left when I shouldn't, so I lowkey deserve it." 

"Is not like we could decide where to go after what happened that night"

"Are you ever going to blame me for something?" Said Taeyong, a bit concerned. "You excuse me everytime" 

"I will if there's a solid reason in the future, but look, I don't remember much of that night but I can guess it wasn't exactly pleasant for you either" 

"I prefer not to remember" said Taeyong, as Ten had pointed out. "I think I suddenly wasn't as scared of death as I thought I would be, but when I saw you cry and give up...I thought that you didn't deserve to pass through all of that that because of me. I should have gone alone" 

"What would have changed? You would have ended up exhausted anyways and I would have waited for you at home for even longer" 

"I wouldn't have risked your life" 

"I chose to do it"

"And... I will never be able to thank you enough for it"

"You don't need to. Just stay by my side" 

"Always. I don't know if you remember this" said Taeyong, slowly. "But last time I did, until it was over" 

"I know, baby. I will never forget it"

"Good" cooed Taeyong. "Because I am going to want you to remember that when Qian Kun slaughters me in front of your door" 

"I'll text him before arriving this time" joked Ten. 

The truth is that he was going to do it. He knew he didn't give a full explanation to his friends about his sunk soul, and that some of them were thinking the worst things about Taeyong, so they deserved to be told at least a bit of the real story. Maybe that Taeyong had to leave because of his fieldwork or something amongst those lines. He just couldn't stay quiet about the things that happened in his life so much. Perhaps he would apologise to his friends too, and promise he would try to get better at expressing his inner problems. 

He smiled for himself. He still had time to be a better person. 

"Are you still interested in creating 'Tyong's Garden'?" 

Taeyong rolled a bit on the bed, dragging Ten onto the pillow so they both could cuddle properly as they were chest to chest and tangled on each other's limbs. 

He yawned, requiring a different kind of sleep from the kind he had been doing for, apparently, almost four months. 

"Now more than ever. Can be part of my new job" 

"Then you'd be happy to know that I have some youtube channel layout designs ready"

"Seriously?" Sang Taeyong, sounding like a bell. 

"You talked about that project enthusiastically, so when I thought that you wouldn't… you know? I build a little bit of it in your behalf. I thought you would have been proud" 

Ten's air was squeezed out of his lungs when Taeyong wrapped his arms around him out of a sudden, hugging him and screeching a happy noise that made Ten laugh too. 

"I love you so much, Ten, I do, I do!" 

"You're asphyxiating me"

Without minding his boyfriend's goofy complaint, Taeyong gave him a messy peck on his face and then eased up his hold.

Sometimes Ten could forget that Taeyong was stronger than he may seem. 

"And those roses you have are amazing, people is going to love them"

"All yours, baby"

"So you read my grandmother's herbarium" he inquired with a smirk, turning the tables and knowing that Ten would shy away as soon as he mentioned his silent yet sappy acts of affection. 

The fox looked away. 

"Perhaps"

"Oh, don't play it modest, miniature roses are hard to care for" 

"Xiaojun helped me a little. But how did you know that I was the one that brought the flowers?"

"I didn't, I just had a gut feeling. When I woke up at the shrine, the wind had blown petals over me and I saw them all around my body. I immediately got reminded of the colors of your fur and started thinking about you right away, but I didn't know where you were. I had the hope that you had a chance… to leave them there" 

"I am… too sleepy to pretend that that didn't make me super soft" 

Taeyong smiled with his cheek pressed onto the pillow, and the youngest one was clad that at least a bit of his foxy night vision was still working. 

"I promise you that being a bit soft is not going to harm you"

"No, I guess not"

"Then I hope to get a romantic little detail when I post one of my first videos of [How to take care of miniature roses|Forest fox roses]" 

"And the emoji" scoffed Ten, protecting his definetely-very-touched heart with humor. "Don't forget the red rose emoji to spice up the tittle"


	17. BONUS: Under the spell (Halloween Special)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are probably thinking "weren't you done with this story already?" but I promised a special when this reached 80 kudos for being my most liked fanfic so here we go. One last time.

The bed emitted a slight puffy sound as Taeyong let himself plop down over the bump under the blankets that was supposed to be his boyfriend, arms open to embrace him. 

“Baby.” His face buried on the mess of feathered duvet, pillows, sheets and blonde hair to prompt his chin on Ten’s bare shoulder and turn his face to smooch his cheek. “Baby, wake up”

“Hmmggh”

Taeyong rolled his eyes, yet the smile prevailed in his face. He was in a good mood, and also used to Ten’s grumpy ways when he was shaken awake by force, so he wiggled his hips atop him, moving Ten’s entire body with him and making him try to roll away from the annoying actions of the older one, but his weight didn’t let him. 

“Baby, wake up, baby, wake up” 

“Taeyongie,” he mumbled, still confused and drowsy with all the excitement that was making the springs of his bed squeak. 

Nonetheless, his response only seemed to set Taeyong into a more hyped up mood, shaking him harder, and getting Ten to open his arms to wrap his arms around Taeyong’s hips, trying to flip him over. 

The wolf ended up laying on the mattress, ashy locks of hair spilling over the white sheets as Ten pinned him down softly. 

His hair was messy from bed, and he was still wearing his comfy pajamas. Whilst Ten was more on the messy arrangement of clothes- if any- to bed, the elder stuck to those comfortable and light and loose set of shorts and shirts.

He wanted to scold him, but Ten couldn’t manage to get mad at him, since he had broken in a hearty laugh of pure and genuine joy, and the most the fox could do against that was smile too. 

That was the perk of falling for someone, the irremediable softening of the heart in front of them. 

Even for a heart-eating dokkaebi.

“What’s going on with you?” 

“It’s Halloween!” 

Ten rolled his eyes with a giggle. 

He was aware of how the date they were in was a first timer for Taeyong, who had lived many years away from any possible festivity of the city, specially if it was a foreign importation like this one; but Ten hadn’t thought about the level of enthusiasm that a season where everything gravitated around lit fireplaces and indoor plans, could ignite in his boyfriend.

“You know it’s not like Christmas, right? It’s more informal and we don’t need to get up early to check if Jack Skellington left present under our pumpkin”

“Who?”

“Agh, you are disgustingly adorable” whined Ten, way too dramatic for the situation. He gave in and gave up, giving a chaste kiss on Taeyong’s lips as a good morning greeting. “Just remind me we should watch Nightmare Before Christmas”

“It’s a Halloween movie?” asked the wolf excited, crawling across the bed to chase after Ten, going downstairs as the younger one decided it was better to get up. Taeyong had walked all over his sleeping cycle, anyway, so lazying around was of no use. “Wait, is it scary?”

“For some people it’s a Christmas movie and for others it’s a halloween movie. It’s animation and musical, it’s not very scary.”

“Okay, I’m in. I can always cuddle with you if I’m scared”

Ten scoffed. 

He didn’t know how to tell his boyfriend that he was the least appropriate person to use as a shield during a scary movie. They had never watched one together yet, so he didn’t know that he would yelp and screech yet. 

He decided not to say anything and enjoy the lack of knowledge from Taeyong as a benefit. 

The coffee machine grumbled as he pressed the button like every morning. 

His kitchen had become a scene worthy of a closed terrace more than an indoor space.

As Taeyong gradually moved in from the cabin, where solitude was lingering, things had been given a subtle turn from what they used to be in the apartment; but Ten digged the fresh aspect of a forest-like arch floating around and upon the humble kitchen counter, as dozens of pots laid over the shelves they had disposed- not without an intriguing effort and the lovely help of Sicheng- at both sides of the window. 

Sometimes, reality was able to sink deep enough into Ten to make him realize how crazy it was to think that one day, a year before, he had noticed the wildfire from that same window, and now, the forest was at the other side of the glass. 

Wherever the wolf was, things flourished around him lulled by a constant pulse of nurture.

Taeyong’s garden. 

“Did you have breakfast yet?”

“No, I was waiting for you”

“Perfect, because I thought--” said Ten, opening one cabinet to start extracting a bunch of fancy-looking food recipients that seemed unfamiliar to Taeyong. He picked a can up as Ten spreaded them on the counter, reading the label with curiosity about the pumpkin puree it appeared to contain. “--That you would find nice to try out the pumpkin spice latte drink, since it's Halloween”

“Are you seriously going to make it?” asked Taeyong, pitch too high to let Ten doubt his predisposition to it. "At home?" 

"Yeah"

"Really?"

He turned around with a can of whipped cream on his hand and an over-confident smirk on his face. “Extra sweet?”

“Like you”

“So half bitter”

“Noooo, you are such a sweetheart”

“Come on, don’t make me regret it” whined Ten, trying to dodge the lovely offering of a nose kiss from Taeyong, playfully refusing to admit what the wolf was trying to make him admit.

"Why? You got all of this for me because I never celebrated Halloween, you are sweet and soft..."

"No, get off me"

“Just say you are pretty sweet”

Taeyong had grabbed his wrist, both giggling and panting around as he pushed Ten against the counter to touch Ten’s pointy nose with his lips. They were almost even in strength, but Ten knew humbly that Taeyong could fight him off, so he gave up on the wrestling and let the wolf fall down against his chest and give a peck on his nose just to wrap his arm around his waist and press the dispenser of the whipped cream can, pouring a drizzle over Taeyong’s face.

“Oh, you didn’t!”

Ten began laughing so hard that he started clapping to make the entire music of victory and amusement fill the house, while Taeyong laughed too, walking back and trying to clean his cheek.

"Just say you are sweet, baby, admit it" 

"Give me that!" Yelled Taeyong, grabbing the can and trying to shoot back.

The wolf was stronger, but Ten was faster and always had been. He dodged his approach, taking the can away, and wrapped his arm around Taeyong’s hips again, lifting him a couple of palms from the floor and holding him close to his chest until he could steal a little of the whipped cream from his face with the tip of his tongue. 

"Whoa! It tastes sweet but I think it needs more cream!" He stated, waving his hand on the air to get the can back down. 

"No! Noooo!" 

More than really fighting, they had started laughing so hard that the strength to push and pull from each other was reduced from the effort. 

It was cold from the fridge when it poured on Ten's skin and hair guided by Taeyong’s attempts to deviate the jet from himself. Either way they ended up squirting more of the sweet substance over themselves and making a mess out of the kitchen.

"Ten, Ten, Ten, this is a mess, the kitchen is-" 

"Don't try to run because you are losing"

"I'm not losing!" 

"What the heck?" 

They both stopped in their tracks, Ten letting Taeyong on the ground, surprised when the voice of Qian Kun interrupted the moment. 

He was standing at the front door, wearing pajamas and nagging. And by his side, Sicheng, with a similar outfit and his eyes still half glued. 

"Happy Halloween!!" Exclaimed Taeyong without restrain, accidentally making a last rope of cream sprout from the tip of the dispenser and land over them both with a splashy sound. 

Ten tried his hardest to contain the laugh, pressing his lips together, but he couldn’t. 

His chuckle made Kun frown more.

"Yeah, trick or treat?" He said, sarcasm too thick for the taste of the fox. "What are you doing?"

"Could ask you the same question since you are the one entering our house suddenly. I gave Sicheng the keys for emergencies only" offered Ten, still perplexed by both the interruption and the combination of men at his door.

"It’s 10am and you two are being so noisy"

"We woke you up?" Mumbled Taeyong. 

"Yeah"

"Sorry"

"Have you slept at Sicheng's?" asks Ten, lifting his eyebrows. 

"Yeah, so what about it?" He blurted out, almost defensive. "It became late yesterday so I stayed" 

"Nothing, nothing, just surprised" 

"I told you they were alright, Kun" butted in Sicheng. His voice sluggish and eyes shut as he leaned on the door's frame. "Let them play or whatever" 

"Can you always hear them so clearly from your apartment?"

"Kinda" answered the youngest, vaguely. "If they speak in a normal tone, not really. Just when they raise their voices"

Taeyong had the need of hiding his face behind the palm of his hand. He didn’t want to think about the implications. 

"Sorry"

"Whatever, what's the mess about?" 

"Ten was about to make a pumpkin spice latte for me" said Taeyong, eliciting a smile from the mentioned boyfriend. He had sounded so proud. 

"Yangyang was right from the beginning," yawned Sicheng. "You could make him do a flip"

"Shut it" uttered Ten.

"Can we have one?"

"Just leave them alone, Kun" said the youngest, tired, grabbing his arm and pulling back towards the hall. Ten pitied the way in which Sicheng had probably had to fight Kun to convince him not to barge in their house, in the first place, with no results whatsoever. The youngest probably just wanted to go to his bed and hibernate for a couple of hours more without interruptions, but Ten appreciated the detail of working to leaving them with some intimacy in the same way. "They are a couple, spending time together, doing domestic living and bla bla bla, let’s go to bed"

"But-"

"They are adults, they can mess their own kitchen if they want"

Is not that Qian Kun wasn't aware of the type of scene going on in their apartment worse than Sicheng as he pushed him out and closed the door, but he grumbled and frowned on the way out anyways. 

Once they were gone, the tension of playfulness in the air had dissipated.

Taeyong pursed his lips and smiled weakly, trying to get rid of the sticky blotches of sugar sticking to his hair, his face and part of his pajama t-shirt. 

"He doesn't like me at all, does he?" 

"Oh, babe..." said Ten, wiping some more cream off his cheek, gently. "He is... working on it, you shouldn't give it a lot of importance. Not as much as to feel sad"

"But I want your friends to like me"

"My friends love you. Sicheng would jump off a cliff for you, and Xiaojun looks up to you so much that Hendery gets all whiny and clingy. It's just that Kun takes a bit more of time to fully trust someone"

"Yeah, and I gave him trust issues in the first month" 

The fox's eyes softened, and his shoulders dropped a bit as he grabbed a bowl and started dumping ingredients in a glass bowl. 

There was like half a couple of milk, a bit of the pumpkin puree, some powder that must be spice, and a spoon of brown colored liquid. 

He wasn’t the absolute best at cooking, but that made it feel even better for Taeyong when he prepared something, since he knew that Ten did it only to show him he cared about him. 

While words could clog the fox's throat when he tried too hard to be specific sometimes, showing his affection through actions worked incredibly well. From the first time he made breakfast in the forest and until that moment in their kitchen whisking a mixture for a weird coffee drink that may or may not be in Taeyong’s liking spectrum, all of it touched his heart. 

But what was he doing for Ten? 

"Those trust issues are his problem. If anyone had to doubt you as a boyfriend, that would be me, would be my job, if any, not his" 

"Babe"

"Hmm?"

"I don't want to leave or anything" 

A bit of the earthy toned concoction of the bowl flew over the border of the bowl as Ten stopped his task abruptly to look at the wolf that had started watering some of the plants by his side, checking which ones needed more attention. 

"Taeyong, don't be silly. I don’t doubt you, not at all, I don't have reasons to do that. And I don't want you to feel down today, okay? We have so many things to do!"

Taeyong's eyes sparked. "Have you prepared more things?" 

"Of course. Movies, candies, costumes and all those thingies people like to do" Ten got to the older one, shaking the half empty can of whipped cream and pouring a nice top -higher than the usual- to the mug he had been preparing. "Happy Halloween, pup, have breakfast on the table, I will finish watering those babies" 

Taeyong held the mug, not finding a single reason in his mind to oppose the proposition. From the ceramic and the liquid, a warmth radiated to set his heart at ease, and the drink smell rose in the air to fill Taeyong’s nostrils with an unique, new and cozy scent. 

He sat on the kitchen table, noticing there was also a small and long box with the logotype of a nice bakery he had been growing attached to, lately. 

Ten was being thorough with the celebrations, but Taeyong couldn't even say he couldn’t expect it from the fox. From the start he had noticed he was stubborn, and not only that, he was actively meticulous. 

Not for anything he was the one to get them out of trouble, after all. 

He made Taeyong’s life be more carefree.

Enjoying that. 

The wolf opened the box, giggling with the amusing detail of the five lined up macaroons inside. They were all black, and the filling was red, making up a spooky look that matched the date. However, more than scary, Taeyong found romantic that the decorations were red roses on some, white roses on others and, in the center one, a white wolf under the white and full moon. 

He rolled his eyes, not saying a word. He just unlocked his phone and took a picture of his breakfast with a convenient filter to send it directly to the instagram stories world. 

It was almost a pity to take one cookie out and bite it, destroying the art, but the hunger and gluttony were stronger. 

"Damn, these taste great. What are they made of?" 

"Don't remember. Cranberries? No, cherry buttercream" 

"Come here and have breakfast with me, or I'll eat them all before you can grab one, I'm warning" 

"Wait a tic, how much water does this--" there was a pause from Ten while he looked for the label of the plant, knowing that Taeyong had one written with his cute calligraphy on each of them, usually hanging from the steams with a gentle cord. "Mei...maidenhair fern needs?" 

Taeyong tucked his chin over his hand, elbow resting on the table, as he observed him.

He had climbed onto the kitchen counter to reach the pot in question, located in one of the highest spots of the shelves to allow the pretty foliage to hang and grow longer towards the floor. 

"Keep it humid. Give it about a full glass of water" He was endearing, truthfully endearing, up there, all elegant like the fox he was and always had been, perched on the countertop with his blonde hair, silly pink pajama pants and Taeyong's ceramic water can that he had bought in harmony with the apartment's decoration. "Babe, can I take a picture of you for my page?" 

Ten angled his head back. Ah yeah, there it was, the reminder of how his fox wasn't only elegant but also completely cunning, in the form of a smirk. 

"Are you going to show me off so soon? I am having fun with your followers' speculations about the pretty gardener's marital status and his job, age, etcétera."

"Let's not show your face then."

"Okay, but I'm pretty shirtless right now, hope you don't mind showing that to the world." 

"As long as you don't mind them seeing, I don't mind sharing the image… they are not going to have you like me, anyways."

Ten giggled, actually focusing on the amount of water he let pour into the soil of the narrow pot, hearing the quiet click of the camera as Taeyong captured his view with the same filter he had used earlier.

"Oh my my, pup, so egotistic. Weren't you the most selfless person in the world when I met you?" 

"You said so, I never agreed"

"You nursed me because I was a creature of the forest, that was pretty selfless. But now you are getting a bit greedy" 

"Well" responded the wolf, trying to hide the blush in front of Ten as he sat on the table with him and picked up a macaroon.

Jealousy was a feeling that Taeyong didn't want to have. He had been brought up in a forest and, in a place like that, there was not such thing as owning a living thing and claiming rights upon it, everything was for everyone and worthy of the same respect. 

But having a human shape and a human life naturally breeds human emotions. 

"I have seen how people can want you. Fervently" 

Taeyong had. 

He had seen the sheer desire shining on the glassy eyes of Jaehyun during that unmentionable night and his blood had burned hot through his veins. He wasn’t proud of that, to the contrary, in fact, he knew he had lost the control of his own nature that time. 

"Not really, baby, it's only the magic that makes them crazy for this"

"Not true. You don't need magic to make me love you, so not everyone needs to wait until you bewitch them" 

Ten chuckled, stirring his coffee to finish having breakfast. 

"It’s not like I go around running people down, especially not since we are together" 

"I know…" 

"I don't even know… if I can still…" 

His nose scrunched up, leaving the phrase in the air, but Taeyong was aware of what he meant. 

Ever since he 'came back' his skills were muddled. His hearing wasn't sharp, his night vision didn't work as fine as it used to, and changing shapes back to back was a thing from the past. Thus, Ten didn’t seem to like to be reminded of it, it made him feel lacking and his mood changed to something gloomy. 

Both of them had been making research, so much that half of Taeyong’s library had moved from the cabin to the apartment. They had gone through many books, more than half of them inconclusive, and they had a couple of theories about the ongoing situation. 

The most plausible and optimistic one was that the exhaustion and overstrain of forcing a nine tailed level of energy had worn him out, causing a slingshot effect that took Ten to an uncultivated state of spirit. 

Yet, there was a possibility that he had been reborn as a human instead of a capable dokkaebi. 

Taeyong knew this was something that made Ten self-conscious and a bit sorrowful, but for what he could tell, there was still some vibrancy in him that wasn't exactly human. But Ten still thought, sometimes, that his boyfriend was just trying to make him feel better. 

"I bought you something" he chimed in. 

Ten rose his eyes from the steamy mug, teeth showing under his lips. They were still pointier than a human's, but more suitable for a cub. 

"Risking to repeat myself, we have months until Christmas" 

"But" said Taeyong, emphasising his words with a pointing finger as he stood up from the table and moved back up to the dormitory. "We missed last Christmas and Valentine's day, so I owe you presents" 

"Taeyong, there's seriously no need" 

The wolf came down again in no time, carrying a light, medium size, present box that he handed to Ten despite his modesty. 

"But all the stores are full of cute season items, I just saw it and thought about you, so I got it" 

The youngest looked to the package in his hands. It was wrapped on a plain black paper with a matte finish and decorated with a small branch with leaves, secured under a rustic cord. 

He had to admit that it was beautiful. 

"Come on, open it" fostered Taeyong, resting his butt on top of the table, facing his boyfriend while he fought with the packaging to untie everything without ripping it too much. 

He let out an amused puff, taking the item out.

It was a cute and funny-looking beret made of an orange brown felt that had a couple of fox ears on top. The nod was easy to catch. 

Perhaps it wasn't balanced with Ten's usual style with clothes, but it was extremely cute. 

It seemed to fit him well, when he put it on. 

Taeyong beamed, reaching a gentle hand towards him to adjust it. 

Lacking warnings, he pulled Ten closer to kiss his lips. 

"My little fox, my lovely fox, I love you so much"

Ten giggled faintly, but his eyes were soft as they looked at Taeyong with a heavy sigh, putting one strand of blonde hair behind his ear. 

"Do you miss many things that fox Ten could do, right?" 

Taeyong shook his head but then, he seemed to pause for a second, as if he was giving a second guess to it. 

Something inside Ten's stomach flipped, nervously, but then, Taeyong’s nonverbal response took him by a pleasing surprise when the wolf withdrew his gaze, evasive, and his ears turned red. 

"What?" Asked Ten, irremediably sly. 

"Nothing"

"What is it?"

"Your… teeth were sharper" he mentioned, a bit shy and a bit amused.

The flash of memory quickly invaded Ten.

"Aah…" caressing his own neck slightly with his infertipes, he tried to mimic Taeyong's voice tone as close to the specific night it happened as possible. "Ten, bite me here"

Taeyong blushed, so hard this time that it was not possible to be covered. He hit Ten's shoulder, wishing that could make the fox stop embarrassing him. 

Ten, however, was already been back on the chair, laughing his ass off. 

"Don't!"

"It was what you said!"

"Don't make fun of me" he pouted.

"I'm not making fun of you, I liked it, didn't I?" 

"You got me all scratched. As per usual" 

"Pup, you don't have blunt claws either" 

"But anyways! Don't make fun of what I said" he whined again. "It was in the heat of the moment and I was pondering wether it was all because of your effect or what else"

"My effect" scoffed Ten, putting quotation marks on it with his fingers. "Honestly, I don't know how it feels like, myself. How does it feel being under the spell?" 

Taeyong’s expression distorted in a certain confusion. He wanted to explain it to him, but it was hard to put a feeling into words, especially when it's so unique and abstract. 

"It feels like you are choking"

"Kinky"

"Not like that. I think?" Mumbled Taeyong, trying harder. "Feels like the world distorts around you and you know it's still there but you can't drag your attention away from your eyes, or your lips… and it doesn't matter, because you feel safe in there" 

"So like being with you, petty much"

Taeyong gave another hit to Ten’s shoulder,, but flaunting some of his swiftness, he caught his wrist in his hand. 

"It’s not true"

"Enthralled and safe? It's exactly what I feel when I'm with you"

"I don't believe you" muttered the wolf. "It’s different, it's…" 

Mischief clouds his eyes as he pulls Taeyong off the table to sit on his lap. 

"Look into my eyes"

"Wait… no, you are going to do it" 

"Look into my eyes, pup" sang the fox, already making Taeyong feel like he was being drawn to a foggy place of light-headedness with his fingers holding his chin to make him turn his face and lock their eyes. "Stare deeply" he whispered, with such a lovely, sensual thickness on his tone. 

For some reason that he had never been able to understand, the way he held his stare made his breath go out shaky and hot when it clashed with Ten's lips. 

His eyes were eternally spellbinding, regardless of the magic he poured on them. The light danced in his pupils vividly, and at the same time, waved with that lulling and serpentine twirl that made Taeyong’s heart feel safe. 

He was so close that on the palms of his hands, dripping to Ten's chest as if dragged by gravity, he could feel the light pulse of his heart underneath the clothes and skin. 

His sweet scent of wood and flowers enveloped him, mixed with the warm aroma of coffee, spice and wet leaves that floated in their kitchen. It might be something strange, but despite being the first time he smelt the combination, it took him to the core of what someone can call home; warm, inviting, familiar and safe. 

Wolves do have a big sense of family, but Taeyong had taken some time to wrap his mind around something very simple for others. That family is not only the people you're born with, and that home is not only the place you are born in. 

It took him  _ months _ to realize that staying at the cabin alone like a hermit was senseless, that he missed Ten at every second he was away, in town, working and with friends. He no longer needed to guard the forest, everyone had formed a huge respect towards it, he better needed support for himself and a change to feel his mind lighter. 

But Ten never forced him to anything. Not once. 

Looking at his eyes, waiting for the resort to click and send him floating, something in his eyes grew softer, pupils dilating to give him the look of just an inoffensive small animal that could be haunt easily. 

And then. 

They disappeared behind his eyelids as a smile changed his entire countenance, making his eyes turn crescent moons. 

"See?" 

"W-what should I see? You didn't do anything" 

"Right. But you did"

"Me?"

"Enthralled, safe, addicted… when I look into your eyes, I feel like that. Ain't that magic too? I am certainly scared of it" 

Taeyong's chest shook with an unrestrained chuckle. He should have guessed that the fox had planned something like that. 

"Anything to make your point come across, no?" 

"Is it working"

Taeyong giggled again, dragging a smile out from Ten, as well, hearing the breathy and squeaky sounds. 

He wrapped his arms around Ten's neck, leaning on his chest. "Yes" 

The snuggling of the older one on the other's neck elicited a secret smile from Ten, running his fingers through his ashy hair. 

"Don't tell me you are sleepy now. You woke me up all hectic, made me make your breakfast and water your plants, and now you want calm and cuddles"

"You are scared of loving me?" 

Oh, that part. 

"I-"

"You are?" Asked Taeyong, more alarmed that time, snapping his head up to face him. "Why?" 

"Not like that, it sounds bad if I say it that way. I mean that it's a raw feeling that I have for you, it grows all the time and I'm unsure of how well I am able to handle it"

"Handle it?"

"Yeah. You know my words crumple when they have to be meaningful, I am not very… eloquent. You deserve a nice boyfriend, and I want to be that boyfriend, but-"

"Yah, are you kidding?" Cut Taeyong, actually surprised of what he was hearing. "You are the best boyfriend I could ever ask for, no but's or anything."

Ten sighed with a smile.

"When you bare your teeth I guess there's not a lot I can say to refute you" 

"Spot on" he said, pressing a chaste kiss on his lips. "I don't need a sweet-talking man that sells the moon to me," he continued, giving another peck on the fox's lips and then, a deeper, slower one. His voice was becoming more secretive as he spoke, and the whisper he finally used was just a wisp of air over Ten's parted mouth. "I root for the action"

"You want action, pup?" he almost growled just like a fox could. 

"With all the things you had planned for me today?"

"We got time, you woke me up early"

"And what about Kun listening tightly to our noisy house?" Ten scrunched his nose with the awkward imagen that formed in his mind. "You know I'm loud" 

"The wolf likes to howl" chuckled Ten, somewhat dark and somewhat still fun, wired into a kiss that was barely anything but exchanges of hot breaths and a light touch of their lips. "I thought we could take a moment to recreate what the spell feels like on me...since it's Halloween… the spell theme..."

"I want to carve a pumpkin" 

"That would do too" ssys the youngest with a cackle. "As long as you are happy and smiling, I'll take it" 

"Dressed up with a costume. You got yourself one, right?" 

"It took me ages to decide, but I did. Settled up in the elf from The Lord of the Rings. You know… because he is from the woodland realm" 

Taeyong laughed that time, catching the pop culture reference for Ten's surprise. He had read the books when he was younger and Johnny lend them to him so they could play together and pretend they were fantastic knights and creatures, even though Taeyong didn't need to act for that.

"I want to see that" 

"You will, but I'm going to need you to get up first" cooed Ten, tapping Taeyong’s thighs lightly as they hung from the chair at both the fox's sides. 

Nevertheless, Taeyong leaned on his chest again, nose brushing against the warm and scented skin of Ten's neck.

His whine was light. 

"Give me some more minutes" 

Ten chuckled, eyes closing and forehead leaning against the shoulder of his boyfriend. 

"Who says no to you?" 

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new creation, I'm ready to cause trouble. Anyways, I want to let you know that I'll update this often, probably weekly if I'm able to. My twitter acc is @leechailatten if you want to see my update announcements or just me yelling about my faves. Thank you for reading and have a nice ride!


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